#I think there's actually a snip of dialogue I was playing with where one of the gestionnaires is like...infatuated with Eclair

[inspiteallthedanger]

Any moments in get back that you think Peter Jackson took some creative liberties on? As someone who’s knowledge about this era of the Beatles is limited, I wanna know if there’s some storytelling in Get Back that’s exaggerated lol

Hi there anon and a good question.

There has been extensive debate around this - and I've made at least four posts focusing on exactly that (see below).

But, the short answer is: I don't think Pete has done much that substantively changes the meaning of most of the content. There are some places where it's clear that he's putting his own meaning over things, like where he's put Isn't It a Pity over where George has left etc. But, overall, I think he's done an amazing job. I don't want to take away from the sheer scale of the work he did and the amazing accomplishment of it. All my recent posts have shown how much I love the doc and I don't think it's done much but show how brilliant they are. I love it and I think he should get all the praise (and awards) for it.

But, that's not actually what you asked. So, there are four (somewhat) exceptions to the above:

The "then there were two scene" - what actually sets Paul off isn't that (in fact they all laugh about it). It's MLH asking would John come back (and leave Yoko) if Paul just asked. Paul says he “Can’t be bothered with all that” then does that sort of head shake and wells up. I can see why Pete doesn't think this changes it all that much? But to me it does.

The "Must we do this in public, Mr Lennon" scene. This is actually in response to John and Yoko starting to bitch about Apple not promoting Two Virgins well enough. Paul doesn't appear to give a shit about the drugs talk. He's also saying that 'in character' as a journalist. But, that said, both he and John are both being a bit pissy, despite the fact they've mostly been joking around before that topic.

George's comment after Paul plays Get Back that "musically, you know, it's great"... that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about another album by another group. Which does make sense, because I remember thinking that was a bit uncharistically nice of George, lol

The hug at the end of ep one... They're actually crowding around a camera and taking the piss out of MLH. That said... I don't think the meaning has changed? I think they are comforting each other, but they do that in the way they've always bonded: being Mean Girls and excluding people that aren't in their group. But. Still. I think he's playing fast and loose.

Other than that... Pete changes a lot of the dialogue. Again, not in meaning. But most of the conversations have been snipped, moved around and taken from different parts of the day, or for example he gives John's joke a new punchline. He also is very rarely showing them playing the songs that we're hearing. Does this matter? Certainly to some people it matters a great deal. To me, less so, because other than the above the meaning is the same. It’s just he takes out the waffle. But it’s really heavily edited. Also small thing: J&P aren’t alone in the lunchroom tapes. Why he says that I have no idea - Ringo, Linda and Yoko are all there. I think this is important to note because... that might explain why they’re not being totally frank with one another. 

I have to add this, but I can’t understand what (if anything) it means. Apparently Pete replaced George with someone else (Tony Richmond) in a very short scene - he digitally inserts someone over him, I mean. I'm taking Doug Sulpy's word for this, but it sounds so bonkers I side-eye it because there's no reason for Pete to do that. But, there's no reason for Doug to lie either. It changes exactly zero about the scene. But it is a weird, so I wanted to mention it. 

This also doesn't take into account what he's left out: namely Yoko. By all accounts Yoko does do and say a lot more than is implied by the doc. She makes a lot more effort to distract John and she does offer John advice on the music. We can hear her on an outtake of Oh! Darling interrupting to say her divorce has just come through, for example. Which... maybe it had, but I dunno. Seems like she also might have just wanted to stop J&P telling each other they'd die if the other left. But... who knows. I can see 1000000% why Pete did this in the current climate (not bringing down a fresh wave of hate on a very elderly, sick woman). But also, from an historical documentation context, it's probably not the right call.

I've got four more posts on this here, here, here and here (that last one you'll want to read all the replies on to get a good sense of the discussion). In case you can’t get enough of this. 

Anyway. There you go. Overall, I think Pete did a brilliant job but a close reading e.g. people's body language and exact responses to each other probably isn't a good idea. Unless you've always watched the tapes, a read all the transcripts, that is. 

Let me know if you have questions or comments or anything else everyone though!

[gatherround]

Just noticed for the first time how Eurydice’s arrival in Hadestown:

Is not dissimilar from Eurydice’s arrival to the underworld in Sarah Ruhl’s “Eurydice”

The arrival to the Underworld via the elevator is actually in the script for Ruhl’s Eurydice (in a truly marvelous set of stage directions):

(though side note, I do think everyone who stages it where she uses the umbrella to not get wet chooses a lovely image that misses the point)

Which reminds me that there are actually a number of snippets in Hadestown / Eurydice that remind me of each other, beyond just the obvious similarities of plot and shared allusions:

For one, the very first scene, which reminds me of “Wedding Song”:

Though of course there actually is a Wedding Song as well (yes, this has lyrics pulled from a song that exists outside the show):

And the subsequent “Promise”(s):

And, after she has died, a request to “wait for me”....

And then the return of the opening melody, and the fact that the melody that unlocks the gates of hell is wordless;

Though to be fair, these are very fleeting similarities, I find it especially interesting that both choose these same snips of language and imagery, because the stories are otherwise extremely different. The interpretations of Hades are vastly different. The image of the underworld itself. Most of the set design, elevator aside. Eurydice’s characterization. The existence/non-existence of Persephone. The reason Orpheus turns. And structurally, the shows choose completely opposite beats from the original myth to dwell upon. The longest sections in Sarah Ruhl’s play are after Eurydice dies and before Orpheus begins on his journey to the underworld (which lasts only a few lines of dialogue over vamped music in Hadestown), and the events between Eurydice and Orpheus after he turns (4 full pages!), and Eurydice once she arrives back in the underworld (14 more pages!), all of which only get an “It’s you / It’s me / Orpheus / Eurydice” and a quick trapdoor in Hadestown. On the flipside, Hadestown spends a long time, to the tune of maybe 5 or so songs oh my god I put that in as a guess, lmao in the Broadway version it’s actually EIGHTEEN songs, between Orpheus’ arrival in the underworld and Hades offering him the deal to leave with Eurydice; in Ruhl’s version, this takes less than a page and a half of dialogue, and is basically immediately what Hades offers -- compared to the 18 songs, it’s less than 18 lines of dialogue. These shows really could not have gone in more different directions with this myth -- which makes it all the more interesting to catch these little similarities and bits of shared language and imagery.

[isagrimorie]

Spyfall 2

Commentators: Jodie Whittaker, Sylvie Briggs (Ada Lovelace), Chris Chibnall

Much like the Doctor doesn't like being alone, Jodie also isn't keen on doing scenes alone.

Chibnall actually did consult with his brother in law, who is very knowledgeable in aviation, about landing planes without a cockpit. And it is possible to do so remotely, people will be surprised how a lot of modern planes are actually flown by a computer. I'm not surprised, my dad's a pilot and he told me a lot of modern aircraft are actually flown more by the computers than the pilots. It's a two edged sword tho because then the pilot becomes too over reliant on the autopilot, and that's when accidents happen.

The scene with Ada and Thirteen meeting in the Kasaavin dimension was actually Sylvie's (Ada Lovelace) final day. Her first day was waking up in 'Paris' with Thirteen.

Interesting comment about how the Doctor's rhythm and speech changed dictated by the period of time she's in. It's modern but enough to sound period.

The hall the Doctor and Ada are in is a school, the dining hall.

The Master and his Top Hat! Jodie and Sylvie are both admiring how Sacha commanded the room and how genuinely terrifying he was. 'He (Sacha) rehearses in a way physically you kinda know what he's gonna do but emotionally its different.'

Jodie: "We're the same height, well you can see it 'cause we are but what is really ace is bein' able to eyeball somebody, because very often when you have a standoff with someone there's usually one's looking up, one's looking down or whatever but to be absolutely--"

Sylvie: "Because that changes the power dynamic."

Jodie: "Yeah."

Chibnall: "I never clocked that."

[snip]

Chibnall: "But I wonder if that's what makes it feels so much like your Master, your antagonist, your nemesis. It's like... that's interesting about the eyeline."

Jodie: "Cause in the scene obviously with Lenny outside like this (does something we can't see) and I like doing that thing of scrunching up and kind of, y'know, I suppose the.. doing that thing that kids do headstrong where the body leans forward. But with this two its (growls)."

Chibnall was uncertain about writing the kneel scene, Jodie agrees and didn't like it, Sylvie mentions that it feels epic to her. Chibnall:"There's something about your perfromances that makes it feel epic. But it's just that two-hander."

In the kneel scene, when they were filming, to keep the secret of the Master's identity, Jodie called Sacha 'Myka' instead of Master.

Jodie: "I like my bowtie." Chibnall: "Are you angling for the return of the bowtie?"

Jodie: "Every set, I try to knick something." LOL.

I love how Jodie compliments Sylvie, and I agree she fits the era very well. And an instance where costume (corset especially), and the hair all tied back helps get into character.

Ada really had episodes of paralysis, and one of the jumping off points for Chibnall's story.

Sylvie and Jodie comment on how lovely it was to have scenes with three women and not about 'Hey three women! Let's talk about being women! It's (their gender) is absolutely irrelevant to it but it is really lovely to have just three women. The kind of craziness Doctor Who brings with Ada in period clothes, the Doctor in a tux, and Noor in her period appropriate clothes.

They go on to discuss the Master's SS uniform and how it makes them (Sacha included) shudder because of what the uniform represented. And it's more of a reflection of the Master because he just treats wearing the SS uniform as a dress up without accounting for the implications and history of it. An alien tourist playing dress-up. [ED: I think the optics of this is still problematic I think it's something we need to acknowledge..]

There really was a point where Jodie and Sylvie were under the floor boards with people walking above them, and they held each other's hands because that experience was awful. On page it was very cool, but in execution. (Ed: I love that scene the whole way where there's a tense standoff between Noor and the soldiers, and the Master. And the steeliness of Noor just staring them down even with the soldier strafing the floor.) Chibnall wants several films with Noor Inayat Khan.

OMG. There was a point in the shoot where the Doctor was supposed to speak in perfect French, and Jodie joked that she already didn't speak English very well, and so she practiced speaking her line just to get the accent perfect... only for it to be cut for time. I WANT DELETED SCENES NOW.

Scanning through the Spyfall 2 script there's no mention of the scene where the Doctor speaks in French which really just confirms my suspicion that the scripts are not the shooting scripts, or at least the copies the actors use.

So, Chibnall gave the production several possible locations hoping to bring the budget to manageable scale and then he started writing and he got to the scene where the Doctor and Master spoke and the Master asked where they'd meet and then the Doctor answered; "Where d'you think?"

And Chibnall goes: "Oh they've got to meet in the Eiffel Tower. Production is going to kill me!"

Also, by this it confirms to me that Chibnall, like all of the showrunners is a Doctor/Master shipper, which I should've known already because Jack and Captain John were very much Doctor/Master lite.

Jodie loves doing duologues and is hoping for more two handers in the future, and Chibnall is taking note of that. Two handers where the other person has more of the dialogue... LOL. I guess Jodie really loved The Timeless Children.

[ED: Ada and Noor were such good companions. I want a historical companion for Thirteen next please. Thirteen, Yaz, and a historical Companion!]

Sylvie is so fascinated with the Doctor and Master's relationship, about how complicated it is.

One of the advises RTD gave Chibnall is that 'you can save anything in a line.' LOL. Apparently some of the Master's trauma across 77 years involved tailoring.

Jodie comments on how exciting it is being involved in the costuming, between herself and Sacha, they get to build their Doctors and Master's look and shape them. Also Jodie really loves cropped pants.

Jodie and Sylvie love the power walk, the big iconic, backlit smoke walk. The Big Exposition speech.

The scene where the Master arrives in Kasaavin dimension, same day filming for Jodie, and Sylvie too.

Jodie loves all the engineering and carpentry work, and any practical work.

They did do a shoot where they moved forward to a scene where Noor died, but in the edit found a better ending in the one that was broadcasted, and IMO, that was the right choice. Chibnall wants it more that Doctor Who will inspire people to read up more on Noor Inayat Khan and same Ada.

Chibnall didn't want to rob Ada of her agency, that the Doctor helped her discover computers or suggest that she didn't come up with it, everything Ada did she came up with herself.

The scene where Thirteen is alone and contemplating what happened to Gallifrey, Jodie comments how this was one of the few times where she's just very still.

Chibnall: "This is second series Thirteen, the place you take a character once you've done the first act, done in the beginning of your Doctor's second act."

Jodie and Sacha made sure that they're there in person for the scene in the TARDIS because having a stand-in would change the energy and performance of the scene.

Chibnall: "That performance from Sacha, the layer he brings to the Master there, of emotional truth and pain is so fantastic. It's a gift for a writer, and opens up the Master as well. And opens up your Doctor, I think, the trauma's so personal."

Hang on. Chibnall: "Is that the first appearance of the jumper? [ snip] They've come in this second series, its the first jumper. Little tiny changes you and Ray figure out." Are they implying there were more Doctor wearing only her long sleeve jumper we didn't get to see???

Chibnall: "And you got your Doctor theme but also it's the first time you [speaking to Jodie], it's interesting, I deliberately kept them back in the first series so that when you say them here, it's like you're saying 'Gallifrey', 'Kasterborous', 'Master for the first time."

Jodie: But its good that it ends with a: [using the same steely, angry voice]: 'Questions?' Like: 'Back to business, c'mon.'

Chibnall: (watching Thirteen's face subtly change when Yaz asked if they can visit, and it changes from a broken void to a forced smile). "Ohhhh. Why won't you tell them?" (LOL a writer asking his character.)

[setsuntamew]

So, Persona 5 Royal, huh?

Full disclosure: I had gotten about halfway through November on Wednesday and finished it out Saturday night, which took uhhh about 65-70 hours? Some of that was sitting there waiting for the PS4 controller to recharge or listening to music in the Thieves Den while eating, but I still feel like I need to own up to how extremely bad I am at making good decisions with my life XD

MOVING ON, THOUGH, HOLY SHIT. P5 was a very good game, but Royal’s additions & changes made it incredible. I like the ending way more; I think it’s more emotionally fulfilling and meaningful, especially with everyone’s more defined future plans. Definitely felt like everyone had more growth in the end!! Which is something I’d always thought P5 was lacking.

Snip snip for spoilers and the fact that this post ended up being too damn long, oops! the last third is basically Akechi feels and analyzing his ending, so......yeah XD

Part of why I plowed through SO much of Royal in so little time is....Akechi XD Like okay, this is my stupid fandom blog, I can be excited about him all I want!!! I got to Sae’s Palace and just....I couldn’t put it down. @dragonofeternal​ and I ordered an embarrassing amount of takeout instead of cooking because we just had to see how everything with Maruki and the third semester was gonna go down. I’d already been dying along the way because Akechi’s confidant dates are so good, I just. Fuck!!!

Also, look, for the entirity of Shido’s boss fight and the depths of Mementos/Yaldabaoth/etc, we’d look at each other every few minutes and just be like AKECHI SHOULD BE HERE WITH US, HE DESERVES TO GET HIS VENGEANCE ON HIS SHITTY DAD AND FORCED DESTINY!!!!!

December 24th had to be the longest god damn day in Akira’s life because like. Final exam grades are posted in the morning! He goes to school and then dives into hell, crawls his way back out, briefly dies by fading from human cognition, fights an actual fucking god, and then....ends up dissociating in Shibuya until Sae shows up and is like “oh hey thanks for everything you did, please sign up for being arrested now.” And while he’s still reeling from that, Akechi walks up to take his place, like some kind of bullshit knight in shining armor schtick, and leaves no room for conversation.

AND THEN WE HAVE TO GO ON A DATE

I romanced Hifumi this time around, because I wanted Akria to bang a girl who is just so incredibly out of his league, but....it’s not necessarily that I forgot I was dating someone, more that it had been *so many hours of plot* that I was emotionally exhausted. Like, Hifumi texted me and I was just like. Right. RIGHT. It’s still Christmas Eve, somehow. I was at *school* this morning. The whole world merged with Mementos briefly in the middle of this, Akechi is somehow alive, and I guess I’m going on a date now????

I do appreciate how many “god I’m just dissociating my way through this” conversation options there were for the date, tbh. I feel bad though, I really like Hifumi, but I feel like Akira is not giving a date his full emotional attention at that specific time. It feels a bit like emotional whiplash, more so than I remember it being in P5? Maybe it’s because I played it 4 years ago and there wasn’t the added emotional weight of Akechi’s reappearance, but it was just like....a lot, in Royal.

AND THEN THE NEW YEAR HAPPENED. I’d been spoiled on large parts of the third semester, mostly because Royal’s been out for a year already and I’m too curious for my own good. I’d also somehow lied to myself, saying I didn’t have time to play another Persona game right now, and yet here I am, 171 hours of game play within exactly a month, kicking myself for not knowing how deep in Persona hell I would get XD

Which is to say, as soon as the new year started, it felt I was drowning in anxiety. I knew something was wrong, I knew they were in a false reality, but knowing that sure as fuck didn’t make it easier to go through. If anything, it was somehow worse, knowing that it was all gonna come crumbling down, but I didn’t yet know the exact details, only the broad strokes of it. Just. Every time someone talked about something that was wrong, my heart would clench.

God, I’m so fucking tired, I pulled an all-nighter on Friday so I could get through Royal before having to work on Sunday, and I am feeling it right now. Life tips: don’t do what I do XD

Every moment with Akechi felt like borrowed time, at least for me, because I knew what was coming. I spent so much time in Mementos with him; I ended up putting just him and Akira in my party and plowing through everything, including trouncing the Reaper over and over just for the hell of it. I got his ultimate weapons, I spent so many nights in the jazz club with him that he ran out of dialogue options, and I still took him back for more. I accidentally failed to EVER trigger Sumire’s Showtime because every fight was just Akira and Akechi against the world, because fuck it, I’m playing this for fun!! If I want to play with them in stupid costumes and no one else in the party, I’m gonna. Royal did such an incredible job giving Akechi more depth and development: it was all I could hope for, and it made it that much fucking worse to know what was in store for him.

Somehow, I thought it would be harder for me to make the decision to refuse Maruki’s deal, since fuck, fuck what I wouldn’t give for Akechi to be alive???? But I barely hesitated, only really stopping because I had to emotionally brace myself for it, because a reality where he can’t carve out his own fate would be a disrespect to everything their relationship is built on.

I have a whole shit ton of feelings about post-beating Maruki but they’re basically all Akechi related meta so somehow they ended up at the end of this post, I’m sorry XD

I understand that they had to keep the going to jail bit because 1) Akechi didn’t turn himself in, Akira did and 2) it leads to the final events of the game, but let me just say....the emotional roller coaster of fighting Maruki, almost failing multiple times, waking up in jail, the Phantom Thieves & friends getting Akira out of jail, celebrating that, and then getting thrown into Valentines Day was a LOT for my heart to take. Once again, didn’t forget I had a girlfriend, just got too invested in the plot to really be thinking about her. It’s less than two weeks after the fight with Maruki and somehow, everything is supposed to be okay????

The scene with everyone talking about their future plans is such good character growth, though. Everyone feels like they’ve truly grown and are making decisions that, even though they might be painful or hard at times, are ultimately very important to them. It’s a really good contrast to the “almost everyone goes to Shujin and they all stay in Tokyo forever without doing anything for themselves” Maruki’s perfect reality bad end.

Standing in the Underground Mall on White Day, being told I had to get flowers but finally being able to have control of Akira again was....so bittersweet. The fact that the location of the date is the aquarium is a low fucking blow, and I almost threw the controller across the room I was so upset. Like. THE AQUARIUM IS UNLOCKED BECAUSE AKECHI HAS TICKETS HOW FUCKING DARE SOJIRO SUGGEST IT LIKE MY HEART ISN’T STILL ACHING????? God, speaking of that: The fucking god damn Featherman video game tore my heart out because I ended up playing it WHILE WORKING ON SHIDO’S PALACE and I cried a ton about Gray Pigeon because of course they had to dig the emotional knife in even deeper!! Just fuck me up, it’s fine, I’m just dying!!!!!!!!!!!!

I ended up scrolling through his texts to find the group chats that still had Akechi in them, and fuck, it was a LOT. Like. Maybe it’s because I’m too invested in the two of them, but it was probably the worst emotional whiplash of the whole game. Like, how am I supposed to go play happy with anyone while staring at texts from a reality built of lies? It wasn’t real but the proof lives on in his phone and his heart, and I’m still fucked up over it.

HOWEVER. FUCKING. I SPENT LIKE HALF AN HOUR BEING EMOTIONALLY COMPROMISED ABOUT ALL THIS AND THEN DISCOVERED THE BASTARD STILL HAD ALL HIS EQUIPMENT, INCLUDING THE ULTIMATE MALE ARMOR!!! He returned his shit after Sae’s Palace even though he thought Akira was dead, but this time it didn’t get fucking returned to my inventory, so he must have fucking run off with all his shit!!!!!!! Why the hell did none of it get returned if he was never alive in the true reality? Like I know it'll be returned for a new game+ but I like to nitpick game mechanics for story reasons, because one of the things I love most about video games is the experience of them as another layer to the story. The texts from the third semester shouldn’t exist anymore, since they never really existed, but there they are. Akechi insisted that he has a gap in his memory after Shido’s Palace up until seeing Akira on Christmas Eve, but who can say that wasn’t related to Maruki tampering with reality or some other Persona-related reason?

I mean. I got the full and complete True Ending; I saw him in the train station. If that’s not Akechi, then who the fuck is it? Atlus made sure to put the work in to make him a part of not just the main story but also, especially, the third semester, and for what....to have his final time on screen be as the butt of the joke, squished underneath everyone in the Mona-copter? As much as it hurts, his end in Shido’s Palace matters; it fits his character and he gets to go out fighting- carving his own path, really. In Royal, barring the tiny glimpse of someone who’s probably him in the train station, the last we see of him is when he watches Joker let go of the rope to finish off Maruki. I know we got the heart to heart where Akira agrees to reject Maruki’s deal and Akechi insists that he’d rather be dead than live in a false reality, but.....no one even says goodbye to him. It’s tragic, it’s painfully lonely, but it doesn’t feel right for such a major character.

Also, as undignified as it is, for the first time ever, Akechi looks like he actually belongs in the Phantom Thieves in that final moment. He’s never been the butt of their jokes before; they always kept him at arms’ reach and he took himself too seriously to be included, but for that brief moment, it really felt like he was part of their group. He stopped lying about himself for their last month together, and so even if they don’t all like him, they can make that decision based on the truth, instead of layers of lies. His death is all the more tragic for this; a life cut short just when he’s finally finding a place he belongs. But his death was already painful; why make it so, so much worse?

Final thing: I’m gonna be spending a ton of time in the Thieves Den trying to find Akechi’s opinions on everything, but also....hey. HEY. What do those six stars that Jose (probably?) painted on the wall mean? Is it just a reference to Persona 6???? LIKE????? I HAVE QUESTIONS. SO, SO MANY QUESTIONS!!!!

Anyway, I’ve gotta go cry into my Starbucks and desperately try to focus on actually doing my job at work, but I loved Royal deeply and cannot wait to drown in it ;w;

[rockmiyabideusexmachina]

2021 Megaman Valentine’s Day Contest Results

Among the many things this past year or so has tested us with is delays, and I apologize that this year’s Valentine’s Day contest results are included in that. I certainly did not plan on this taking until March to get completed, and I am sincerely sorry to have kept you all waiting. But hopefully it is all worth the wait!!

Thanks once again to every single one of you who participated! I will be contacting the winners soon enough. Work will probably keep me from replying to everyone immediately, but I will send a message about prizes hopefully within 24 hours.

Also, my thanks to @subzeroiceskater​ for helping out with judging this year. Not to mention the promo pic above and other assorted bonuses that always bring me a big smile. I might say this seemingly every year, but you all made judging this VERY hard. It might have something to do with the themes as well, but I think both of us flipped and rearranged our rankings repeatedly, and even then, it was hard to decide on who would place. XD Each one of you did an amazing job!

After the break, you’ll see the winners for both categories, along with all of the entries. Raffle prize winners will be noted below by their alias, as well.

Category 1: Kiss From a Rosered (Talent)

For our talent category this year, the theme focused on your favorite Megaman characters giving roses to their special someone, along with incorporating the symbolism of specific rose colors within the piece. That rose color was also to be the predominant color within the piece, to the best of your ability.

A grand total of 9 entries were submitted for this category. You can see the full gallery of all entries at full-size [HERE]. Each entrant’s name will also link to their individual pieces at full-size.

1.) Sapphire: *$100 prize*

Subzeroiceskater said:

Oooooh, this is so cute and pink! Piiink~ Ehem. I love the depth, angle, and color grading of these—notice how Roll’s black linework is at the forefront of the pic but colors mixes with the lights and colors from the sun further along the pic. There’s a lot to admire about how everything easy to read with so many competing elements like the similar hues and bright lighting.

Pink roses usually mean a gentler sort of love but did you know that different shades of pink could signify different things as well? A darker shade may mean gratitude; medium shade could be about a first love or congratulations while a light shade may mean admiration. Tron holding a singular pink rose with varying shades of pink while literally tripping over herself and a Servbot could only mean—that this is hilarious.

Miyabi said:

From a technical standpoint, I think your piece clearly felt the most polished, crisp and virtually professional of the bunch. But more than that, I felt it also best gave off the vibe of the rose color dominating the piece, but in very subtle, beautiful ways. Where as the pink sunset causes many of the normally white areas, like Roll’s collar/sleeves, parts of Gustaff, and more, to ooze that pink lighting. Even with her klutziness, you still also portrayed the feeling of sweetness, admiration and appreciation that a pink rose conveys. Just so pretty, calming, and joyful to look at!

2.) Forceway: *$75 prize*

Subzeroiceskater said:

There is a sort of gentle irony with how Skull Man and Shade Man are both robots modeled after horror symbols—skulls and vampires—but are here surrounded by a soft sea of pink roses. The dark night is often depicted as a primal fear because it hides our deepest fears but here—illuminated by the bright shining moon—the night is transformed into a scene of love—perhaps devotion, with how Shade is gently cradling Skull, as well with the church bell in the background. This is a very tender piece mixing the shadows and the sweet.

Miyabi said:

I know most digital art programs have the brushes and shortcuts to make detailing things like roses a lot easier, but your bed of roses certainly look all done by hand on your own, and that alone impressed me a ton! Based off of the Ariga Megamix tale of Skull Man not feeling appreciated or having a family after Cossack stored him away, I felt the pink roses and Shade showing him that he is actually appreciated here was a fantastic conceptual choice. Purples in the sky and Shade’s body split the canvas and contrast with the pink well, including how you used the pink for some of the stars in the sky. Beautiful job!

3.) DigitallyFanged: *$50 prize*

Subzeroiceskater said:

Yellow is a bright color, often evoking the sun, warmth, light, joy and hope. With roses, its positive connotations continue with possible meanings of friendship, care and remembrance. Tabby’s piece seems to evoke the last one the strongest—with Zero, broken and forgotten in a lab—but, not entirely, because of a bond that is stronger than apparent death lives on—even if in this moment, it’s only a memory. Even the roses are not real—just projections of what was once alive. This is fantastic use contrast with the dark, moody blues against the vivid, almost defiant yellows; and the repeated little motifs such as X crying and the water drops falling all over Zero. It stands out from the rest of happy entries with how sad it is but it still manages to be hopeful.

Miyabi said:

Zero’s blonde locks certainly are an iconic part of his design, so playing off of that and focusing on yellow as your rose color fit perfectly. You definitely made this a very emotive piece considering technically, neither of these two are even alive and moving here! As mentioned above, the little details like the water droplets balancing against Cyber Elf X’s tears, the digital lines to make it appear like X has created the cyber-roses for Zero, and Zero’s battle damage caught my eye immediately. You certainly captured the yellow rose symbolism of remembrance and friendly affection beautifully!!

And the rest of the wonderful entries, in alphabetical order by alias:

AbilityField: [Page 1] [Page 2] [Page 3] [Page 4]

*Raffle Prize Winner* Captain N Mega Man Cel

Subzeroiceskater said:

It’s so poetic about how this contest theme is about how the language of flowers is used to communicate feelings beyond just using words; and so, the comic is completely silent, relying on actions to convey its meaning. Yellow roses could mean friendship, care and affection; and it’s shown wonderfully with how Iris and Lan are so thoughtful with one another. It’s so cute how Iris missed Lan only because he was already out buying roses for her. Given how hard comics are to make and how this is fully colored, I really wanted to give this first place—however I felt the color usage of yellow could have been stronger, especially with the last page, where it would have had the most impact. I had to squint and zoom out to even see if the lighting had changed. Still, it’s such a very warm and lovely work.

Miyabi said:

I always appreciate the effort people put into making multiple-page comics for these contests, and this is no exception! Even without dialogue, you did a great job at conveying your story through your art in each panel and it was easily understandable. Another utilizing the yellow rose, I certainly felt the friendship and warmth in your tale. As Subzero mentioned, the only thing keeping it from placing was that the yellow colors weren’t as dominant in other areas of the pic, besides the panel by Sal. Still, your coloring was very crisp and vibrant throughout each page, and it was an awesome submission!

aw-colorcat:

Subzeroiceskater said:

With the red for Metal Man, orange for Cut Man and the explosion of yellow flowers, that’s the trifecta of warm colors. Yellow roses could mean delight and this pic is delightful in all ways. Cut looks so cute practically swimming in the sea of flowers and greenery, as does Metal’s adorable expression—which is a feat since he only shows his eyes. I also really like the juxtaposition and balance of this piece from: the rust-brown car against green-yellow nature running wild, and Metal holding a bouquet meanwhile Cut’s covered with plants. It makes me want to get some fresh air myself!

Miyabi said:

Cut Man looks grateful for being able to ride in that pickup bed of flowers, and I have a feeling the two of them had a wonderful time just snipping and sawing away at all the stems to gather them all. XD Love how the yellow and oranges play off of both character’s color schemes nicely. The subtlety of the yellow flowers in the foreground, along with the sun and tree in the background all play off each other well, too! Just an absolutely cute pic!

Dark-Dullahan: 

Subzeroiceskater said: 

What a fantastic composition. Dark-Dullahan does away with most color, leaving the colors of the mixed-bouquet roses as the main focal point. Classic red for romance, a gentler pink for affection, mixed yellow roses to signify caring and probably so much more—seems like Nana can’t contain her feelings for Massimo. I love how the close up of the bouquet doesn’t just form a kind of heart at the top but serves as the divider between the two, like a diptych. With such a wonderful offering, Massimo would surely accept her feelings.

Miyabi said: 

As you brought to my attention, your mixed bouquet had a few different meanings, such as the dark pink representing thanks to Massimo for saving Nana from Silver Horn, and the red tips on the yellow roses to symbolize falling in love. Certainly got those vibes from her shy demeanor, as she sheepishly tries to hand them to him. Also agree with Subzero that the line from the bouquet nicely works as a way to separate them uniquely with the background. Sorry you weren’t able to complete it as fully as you had hoped, but the concept behind it certainly was strong!

Donnie:

Donnie also sent in an alternate version made during the creative process, in a different artistic style, that I still feel needs to be shared, as well. Fun to see the contrast, yet still have the same feeling and mood to the piece. 

Subzeroiceskater said:

Oh, I adore this one. It reminds me of a movie poster with the tagline. I love the extra PINK flourishes of the letterings like with the Mega Man logo color change and cute pixelated font and heart. Both Rock and Roll’s expressions are so cute, too—with his more subdued smile contrasted with her exuberant grin. Much like how the pink rose could mean many things like thoughtfulness, cheer or as a show of appreciation, this piece is positively sparkling with affection, hearts and all. It’s clever how the sunset is giving the picture an overall pinkish-red hue while having the yellow light as an outline. A darling piece.

Miyabi said:

With pink roses again, I truly liked the additional hue adjustments where you can feel the warmth and see the lighter pink mixed into their skintone, or areas normally of white - from eyes to teeth to the Megaman logo - that have taken on the pink in it’s place. With the painterly watercolor style you used, it all blends in nicely. Even in your earlier version, I feel you brought a strong game with the hues, but toned down the red from that version to make it feel much stronger towards pink, with a tighter crop of your canvas. It was fun to see how it evolved, and strengthened your piece in doing so! Fabulous job!

DragonMarquise:

Subzeroiceskater said:

No better way to show how madly in love you are than a bouquet of roses that run the gamut of—I can’t call these warm colors because these passions are running hot. Orange seems to be the dominant color here—which in roses could symbolize a love that’s passionate, fierce and deep. It’s also expressed nicely with the two lovers embracing, engaged in mid kiss, their bodies also forming a subtle heart shape, to emphasize the flurry of hearts around them. The bouquet is not just orange roses, however, but a mixed bouquet of the classic romantic red and the more affectionate pink—it’s a piece that’s bursting with all degrees of love.

Miyabi said:

You also certainly mastered the limited color pallette challenge as you tackled this piece! Orange, the color of passion, is certainly felt in their deep kiss and embrace. I too caught the heart shape their heads essentially form, which is then further enforced with the heart of hearts behind them. I thought that concept was pulled off very well. Perfect for the fiery intensity of Match, this turned out to be a very hot pic!

Mattasaurs:

Subzeroiceskater said:

This one has a very clever framing (eh? EH?). The color white is often associated with purity, innocence and hope, and with white roses—weddings and marriage. Sonia dons the classic white wedding dress which has a très élégante design—and the little Lyra on her belt is very cute. The pink background is also very romantic and a nice way to tie in with her theme colors. I dig the lovey-dovey feel of Geo doing the classic bridal carry while clasping a single white rose...but seeing the thorns, I think he better watch his hand!

Miyabi said:

For a theme emphasizing color within the pic, I salute you for taking the biggest challenge in choosing white. In many ways, it could have been the hardest to keep as a predominant color, but still make the pic interesting and visually appealing. Choosing to have the petals all around the frame, with the bouquet nearby was a clever touch. With white often used for weddings and new beginnings, I think the concept of your piece worked just right, where it was subtle, but still incorporated enough other color to give the piece some life. 

Category 2: Kawaii-rimi (Humor)

For our humor category this year, the theme focused on your favorite Megaman character gifting the plush form of another Megaman character to their crush, instantly created by a ninja-like character, to play off of the Kawarimi concept from the EXE series. 

With just 3 entries in our humor category this time around, every entrant placed. You can see the full gallery of all entries at full-size [HERE].  Each entrant’s name will also link to their individual pieces at full-size.

1.) Mattasaurs: *$100 prize*

Subzeroiceskater said: 

Y’know how blocks of wood are sometimes used by ninjas when they do that whole body switching thing? I think it’s clever how this pic has Sal—Woodman.exe’s operator—conjuring the doll. Everything about the pic is so fun and colorful: from Sal’s mischievous grin of accomplishment, Miyu being completely shocked by her chibi doppelganger (check out that body language!) and Masa’s confused expression.

Miyabi said:

Yes, while to some, Sal might not be the first one they think of when they think ninja in the Megaman Universe, but I certainly thought she still fits the bill in her design. Usually we don’t see this much emotion or shock out of Miyu, so seeing her torque her body, taken aback at a doll of herself, is amusing in it’s own right. Meanwhile, nothing fazes Masa. And a bit of randomness: oh man, seeing Masa’s head in profile, with his bandana...wow, I never realized how much his head shape with the bandana looks like a fish’s. I can’t unsee it now. Anyways, I also agree that the color, polish, and fun vibe made this a worthy winner!

2.) ColeManX: *$75 prize*

*Raffle Prize Winner* Captain N Cutsman Cel

Subzeroiceskater said:

E-Eyes? What did you mean by that, Mr. RT-55J?  Although judging from the sparkle on those booblights… I understand, Cinnamon—if that happened to me, I’d be making asides to the camera, like I was in “The Office”, too. Cinnamon’s enthusiastic smile with this whole bizarre scene really sells it for me but shoutout to Marino’s smug satisfaction in the background.

Miyabi said:

🎵 I kind of liked it your way How you shyly placed your eyes on me Did you ever know That I had mine on you?🎵

RT says it only has eyes for Cinny right now, but it’s also known to be a little grabby hands, so I don’t know if I’d fully trust it...but good thing this is just a plush version. Time for the tables to be turned, and Cinnamon to get her claws and paws on it, instead. Very cute, although after the DiVE V-Day event, we all know this is a ruse and your pal boobeyes only belongs to the Ferham Fanclub. XD

3.) Ronin-Apprentice: *$50 prize*

Subzeroiceskater said: 

This whole comic is so sweet and fluffy, nya!  ~(=^‥^)ノ☆ It’s adorable how Proto brings up his gift first and the surprise is how Shadow handmade his gift. The little cat-eared Blues design is so darling--almost as cute as him fussing how totally NOT a cat he is. “Did you steal my cat.” had me snorting. Now I’m wondering where Tango went off to…

Miyabi said:

FU-SION-HA! 

Aside from getting his own Super Adaptor, this is probably the closest we’ve got to seeing Tango and Blues merged as one. LOL I’m sure that plush would have a ton of fans wishing it actually existed. The panels where Blues embarrassingly hides behind his scarf and gets pet like a cat had me laughing! Very cute and adorable comic, that certainly had the most depth in terms of the theme of this category!

[sharkneto]

💖 📥 🖊 🏅, for the ask game!

💖 What do you like most about your own writing?

Hmmm.... I really love the dialogue. Not to toot my own horn but I feel like I hit the characters well and I have a lot of fun writing and reading their interactions.

📥 What is your fave fic to receive comments/messages on?

Right now it's Holding It Together. That fic has been in the works for so long, I have put so much work into it, every comment I get just fills my heart. I love the reception it's been getting, you all have been so kind and supportive. I love hearing what little bits people liked and their theories for where things are going next.

🖊 Post a snippet from a current WIP.

Longer snip but I wrote this today and love this chunk (from Holding It Together prequel)--- Sarah follows after Five. She finds him frowning at puppy foods.

“You’re actually getting a dog today?” she asks again.

He nods, eyes flicking between two ingredient labels.

“Are you even allowed to have a dog in your apartment?”

“I don’t think so. Do you know what makes a good puppy food?”

“No, I’ve never had a dog. Are you sure you don’t want to think more about this? Maybe plan a little more?”

“What’s there to plan?” Five asks, settling on the more expensive bag.

Sarah follows him to a rack of collars and leashes. “What’s there to plan? That’s a living animal, Five. Are you sure you’re ready for that responsibility? You’ve gotta be around to feed it and walk it and play with it.”

Five breaks from studying a harness to give her an unimpressed look. “Gee, I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Have you ever had a pet?”

He shakes his head. “Klaus had a frog. Once.”

Sarah can’t help but feel this is a bad idea. She knows Five is impulsive, but usually that’s tempered by his need to know everything about every situation. As she follows him through the store, she keeps trying to find a different angle he hasn’t thought of or will at least make him pause in his decision to get this dog right now.

When she suggests waiting a week, just to make sure this is what he wants to do, he gives her an incredulous look. “If I wait, someone else might pick Mr. Pennycrumb.”

Whatever her next point was going to be is lost to that. “You’re naming it Mr. Pennycrumb?”

Five nods. “Yeah. It’s a good name, right?”

Who the hell is this? Is there a body snatcher? Is there a shapeshifter here pretending to be Five?

While she’s processing that, Five leaves his basket (overflowing with dog supplies) to go scoop up Mr. Pennycrumb. He brings him back to the wall of toys so he can pick out which one he wants. Mr. Pennycrumb ignores them all to gnaw on Five’s wrist, bending over himself to reach.

🏅 What is something you recently felt proud of in regard to your writing (finished a fic, actually planned for once, etc).

Hmmm... I think it was figuring out how to rework a pivotal scene in Holding It Together. I got to incorporate a fun idea I'd been thinking about since January and it just made the scene so much better. Upped the everything about it. Twas what it was missing.

[deiliamedlini]

I’m amusing myself. I found a flashdrive of my writing all the way back to when I was 12 and had a notebook I wrote stories in that I ended up typing out apparently. As cringy as all this is, I’m posting this because I originally intended to use this blog to have somewhere to look back to see if I’ve improved, so I’m going to embarrass myself and actually post this. After reading some of these old stories, I’m glad to know that my ability to write descriptions actually once existed, and has since gone down the tubes.

This post has one snip of dialogue that I wrote in a story for every year I have on my flashdrive or on my computer. 

I also think if you (mysterious person potentially reading this post) have access to old files, you should totally do this too, even if you don’t post it anywhere. This was a hoot!

Warning in case you consider hitting that ‘keep reading’ button: This is going to be a long post, I can tell. It’s going to take up your screen and you’ll have to scroll a lot to get by it. 

2007:  “Did I do good enough yesterday to use real swords today?”

Benny nodded. “You learn quickly and your magic is strong. If your skill yesterday was a zero, it would be at a six today.”

“I hope that is out of five,” mused Adam.

Benny chuckled. “No, out of ten.

”Adam grabbed a sword only to have it taken away by Benny and he picked up a different one. “What is your skill number out of ten?” 

Benny chuckled again, “Twelve.”

~~~~~~

2008: “Hey, did you like the show?”

“Um… oh, yeah. It was really great.” In truth, she didn’t really hear the music; she just looked at the guitarist the whole time.

“Really? That’s good; we’re playing here again tomorrow, different songs and all that jazz. Oh, I beg your pardon, my name is Roger,” he said as he held out his hand.

“Elizabeth… Liz,” she said grabbing his hand. They stared at each other for a while then let go.

“You look familiar. Have you been here before?” His voice sounded like he was teasing her. 

Liz suddenly realized that she had made absolutely no attempt to hide who she was. “Um…” she stuttered, attempting to come up with a cover story. “No I haven’t. A lot of people say I look like, um, Princess Lynnette. I don’t think so but maybe that’s what you’re thinking of.” 

(HI I’LL NOW BE DOWN HERE WITH MY 5AM COMMENTARY! OMG THE CRINGE! THIS IS WHAT I THOUGH FLIRTING SOUNDED LIKE AHHHH)

~~~~~~

2009: Within an instant, Roland was screaming in agony as lightning flew from the man’s hand and into Roland. He stopped for a moment and the man in charge smiled. “Well? Has your mind been changed?”

Between breaths, Roland managed to croak out ‘no’.

 It went on for about five minutes when the man in charge sighed. “You always were willing to take the pain. Will you just join us? Give up that foolish rebel band you lead and join where rebels are accepted; join us.”

Roland was bleeding from his mouth and his nose. His shirt had been ripped by the electricity and he was struggling for breath. Still, he managed to whisper ‘no’ again. He was hit by the lightening again as another scream escaped his throat. 

(Um, hello to the torture scene I wrote at age 14 😬)

~~~~~~

2010: Nick grabbed my hand and pulled me aside. I looked at his thoughtful expression for awhile before speaking. “What is the big deal? Don’t you kill people to live? Isn’t that all that happened?”

Nick stared at me, his red eyes so intense, I had to shiver, “Something is not right. Peter might have the lowest sense of control, but that is still a substantial amount. He would not just kill because he lost his control, that would take much more than a good smelling human. That would take a battlefield. Either something is wrong with Peter, or it wasn’t him. We need to get you home.” He paused for a second. “You never think things are that bad, do you?”

A smile escaped, “I guess I’m still new to the supernatural.”

 (Excuse me, but vampire romances were a serious mood)

~~~~~~

2011:  Thav had Marley by the neck.

‘Let her go!" yelled Alyx, all sarcasm and toughness gone. She sounded like a little girl begging an older sibling not to draw on their favorite doll. Two shots rang out in her ear and she turned to see Logan with his gun aimed at Thav's head, but the bullets bounced right off her skin.

"Humans are so stupid. Do you really think that after all this time, I would have let myself be weakened by your inferior technology? No, your weapons will do nothing to me any longer." She focused on Alyx. "Would you swap your life for this one's?"

"No!" yelled Marley, struggling to break free.

Alyx sighed, defeated. "Yes. Is that what you're offering?"

Thav glanced at her, but she held Marley's head with two hands now. "No. I was just curious."

Marley stared at Alyx with unseeing eyes, but then blinked as a small tear escaped.

"NO!" Alyx screeched, but strong arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her backwards. 

(Wtf younger me? I was straight up murdering everyone)

~~~~~~

2012: Annalee sprang up from her nightmare, arms flailing and heart racing. Her body felt sticky with sweat and her vision was still blurred from sleep. When it finally cleared up, she realized Nolan was trying to calm her down. After a few moments and deep breaths, Annalee managed to really look at Nolan. His deep blue eyes were tired, but filled with genuine concern. She realized that she had woken him up. 

“Why’d you let her fall?” Annalee finally asked.

He sighed. “I didn’t want to. When she let go, I lost my grip on her and she slipped away. I tried to hold on to her. I really did.”

“But if you’d just held on longer, she may have grabbed something. She could be alive. You should have tried harder!” 

“I can’t save everyone! I’m not a superhuman machine. I regret not being able to save your mother! But the two I don’t regret are joining the rebels, and saving you!”

~~~~~~

2013: I sent sparks of light from my fingers, one to the other. “I do it all the time.” My voice was lifeless and dull as I watched the sparks.

Corin cupped his hands together before opening them again. Where there had been nothing before, there was now a bird watching me before flying away. “It’s nothing to us, but you and I are the only two who can do that.”

We sat in silence for a moment before I began to feel uncomfortable. Every time I wasn’t talking, I remembered that this guy I had just met would be my husband some day. I went to wipe my sweaty hands against my leg. “Doesn’t the whole ‘arranged marriage’ thing bother you?”

He shrugged. “It used to, but I’ve had eight years to accept to the concept.”

~~~~~~

2014: “Here is the real problem: if this was a real fight, I would have been out the second you pinned me, but you’re the king so I have to be kind and let you win.”

“Why? What would you have done to miraculously escape?”

“You’re fighting for your life. There are no rules. I’d have spit in your face and gotten out while you were surprised or…” she leaned closer to him, so close their faces were warm with the others breath, “I would have taken away your ability to produce an heir with my knee and then the knife in my pocket.”

His eyes widened and he took a step back, letting her move away, watching her for a moment before she smirked and tossed him his discarded sword. “You do scare me sometimes, Sel.”

~~~~~~

2015: Looking between God and Lucifer, I poked at God’s cards. “I… I donated to charities! My entire life, I donated! I care about giving to others! That must be somewhere in those cards.”

With a tilt of his head, God made a small sound, like he wasn’t entirely convinced. “Well, you have donated, but not to my children. You’ve been donating to WWF your entire life. What about those starving and in need? You don’t want to save humans, but you’ll save animals?” 

(I basically wrote a crackfic about God and the devil playing cards for someone’s soul for school and I loved it so much hahaha)

~~~~~~

2016: “And I have warned you not to get attached. Your troops are not your friends. Unfortunately, they must be willing to give their lives for you or the kingdom, and you must let them.”

“I can’t!”

Ric rose from the throne, slamming his cane down. Kenna backed down a few steps cautiously, but Ric moved toward her. “You will! I am dying, Kenna! I will be dead in less than a few months, and you will be queen. Being the queen means that you will make hard decisions, you will send thousands to their deaths, only you might not know their names. You will defend this kingdom, and your people from usurpers and tyrants. And you will give this order, now, just as you will give all those.”

~~~~~~

2017: Nathan’s face was pressed against her neck, the harsh pressure coming from his arms around her waist and the impact was his body crashing into her mid-fall. Shield, his mind screamed. She could feel their hearts, both in perfect unison, beating erratically. She was afraid they’d die of a heart attack before hitting the ground. 

“I can’t call it out” he hissed. 

Despite it all, despite the fall, she managed to summon her shield, and felt it immediately strengthened by Nathan’s attempt at magic as they continued to plummet to the ground. 

The shield impacted the ground and shattered, leaving them both panting and in pain. Stumbling a few feet over, she collapsed again next to Nathan, struggling to keep herself upright until she felt Grey run up to support her.

He sat up gently, his hand against his side. “You look terrible.” Leaning forward, he wiped some blood off her face.

“No worse than you.” She smiled and leaned her head back against Grey in relief. “But better than dead. Thank you.”

~~~~~~

2018: Kyle grabbed onto May’s arm to stop her. “I see one of them. Get down.” He put his gun into one hand, and held May with the other. “Let me see your gun.”

She handed over the old revolver, still looking around for any sign of her father, and Kyle inspected the gun, making sure the chamber had all of the rounds. It did. He cocked the hammer and handed it back to her. “Should have checked before.”

“I just assumed…”

“Me too,” he admitted. They stayed low and Kyle led her up further, keeping his eyes on the approaching man. “I can take them.”

“Don’t be stupid, hotshot! Stop!” May hissed and tugged on his arm so he couldn’t move. A second man approached.

~~~~~~

2019: He cast a sidelong look at her, his face the epitome of seriousness. “Probably not. I live for humor. Dark humor, usually. Sexual humor, modestly. Sarcasm, fluently. I’m not actually trying to lure you into my room every time I talk to you. Though, feel free to join me while you’re still wet.”

Sam’s mouth dropped open and she whacked his arm with a decent force. “You just did it again!”

He couldn’t help but laugh at her innocent expression. “See? I can’t help myself. Bad habit. Like cocaine, but healthier.”

“Cocaine?” she repeated.

“Sorry, yeah, I’m actually a drug addict.” Well, not far off with all the meds he was on everyday.

Sam tsked. “Fluent in sarcasm. I’m catching on.” 

(We’re in fanfiction territory now. Everything else has been original, but this is Until Dawn and the other two are Zelda)

~~~~~~

2020:

“Your arm,” she said finally, “How did you say you fixed it?”

Link made a face and turned away from her. “I popped it back in as soon as I got out of the chains. Not the most efficient fix, but it’s worked well enough.”

Her mouth dropped and she crossed the distance between them. “Let me feel it.”

“No.”

“Link.”

“It’s fine.”

“Of course it is. Take off your armor,” she demanded. It was that voice, that posture that she’d used on Link in the past, the one that had him unabashedly intimidated by her. And now, he knew exactly why. It was the demeanor of a royal commanding the attention of one of her subjects.

He sucked in a breath and shook his head in acceptance, unwilling to fight her, as he pulled off the guard uniform and chain mail until he was in the last of his layers, a loose shirt that was barely thick enough so the chains of the mail didn’t rub against his skin.

“Link,” she sighed. She had to see the bone, not just feel it. “You can’t possibly be modest. Before today, I’ve never even seen you with a shirt on.”

“It wasn’t like I was strutting around in front of you like some bird, but it was also before I learned who you were, Princess.” His eyes pointedly avoided hers, and he stared at the bottom branches of the nearest trees just to give himself something else to focus on.

"Well, get over it."

In a quick motion, Zelda tugged his arm lightly, and watched him hiss, stepping away from her in pain. “Gods, Zelda!”

~~~~~~

2021:  “Mr. Woods!” She winced in pain, clutched her throat, cursing her louder volume. But he went back to her side so she could whisper, and he stood beside her, waiting. She took a breath. “I find you tolerable. For the most part.”

“Do you?” he quipped.

“For a rotten pirate, that is.”

“Oh, of course.” His eyes were glinting with mischief.

Zelda’s mouth dropped in frustration as she watched his usual self begin to reappear. Annoyingly confident, entitled in his own way, and charismatic without even trying. It was all in his smile and his eyes, and she wondered if he had any idea what he was doing. “Don’t flatter yourself too much, Mr. Woods. I happen to find you all intriguing.”

“I wouldn’t dream of flattering myself, Miss Nohansen, especially not when you’re doing it for me.”

This time, her mouth didn’t just open, it hung. Her mouth formed the word “I” several times as she shook her head. Her eyes narrowed, and she made an indignant noise.

Link chuckled and rested his hand on the bedframe. “I’m going to leave before I say something that’ll bite me in the ass, which, coincidently, you’ve already seen.” He smirked in her direction, his comment just another attempt to get a rise out of her.

But to the surprise of both of them, Zelda chuckled and shook her head slowly. “Oh, I saw far more than that, Mr. Woods.”

Link’s eyes shot up, wide and completely shocked by her. He couldn’t even hide it.

Goddess above, perhaps her ordeal since arriving on the island had simply broken her. She no longer worked properly.

Unable to stop himself, Link burst out laughing as the most genuine, compelling smile spread across his face, one that Zelda had yet to see. And it had her cheeks flaming in embarrassment.

“Goddess, Miss Nohansen, I find you far more interesting with every conversation we’ve had.” He rested his arms against the bed. “I won’t hesitate to admit that I thoroughly enjoying talking with you. I suppose I find you quite tolerable as well.”

[dragonsorceress22]

fic game

I was tagged by @wickfursfanfics

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line, then tag your favorite authors to play too!

Here goes! I’m going most recently posted first and getting progressively older (and leaving out my cut scenes stories since they always pick up where their prime stories left off):

1. Take a cat nap.

At the top of the stairs, Eri dug around in her purse for her key.

 2. give and take (control)

There was once a time in Kaito’s life when he’d thought king-size beds were extravagant to the point of silliness.

3. Stolen

Shinichi wasn’t quite sure why Hattori still insisted on these outings.

 4. Kaito Kaitou

Kaito still had nightmares about it.

 5. Ritual

Kaito had tried everything.

 6. Casual Encounters

The rooftops, alone with KID.

 7. Magician of the Silver Sky Movie Cut Scenes

“Okay, Maki Juri-san…” Kaito’s toe bounced lightly off the face of the bar in the corner of the KID room.

 8. Tales of Travel

All members with orders regarding Kudou Shinichi are to stand down.

 9. Marked

Another day, another place. Shinichi had been on the run so long that he didn’t have it in him to question the comfortable little town nestled directly in the shadow of a looming Gothic castle in the middle of nowhere. And then he heard about the murders.

 10. White Out

City Mourns Great Detective, Savior of the Police Force

 11. Partner

It was a warm day, sunny and clear in late summer, and Shinichi was in the library.

 12. Window to the Multiverse (Close the Shutters, Lock the Doors)

Sometimes Professor Agasa Hiroshi created useless things: scissors that made snip sounds, appliances that carved watermelon sculptures, fax machines that looked like lunch boxes.

 13. A Marked Improvement

It was a sunny day in mid-spring.

 14. Here is Love

If Shinichi tried – if he had any inclination to – he could not have traced exactly how he’d made it here.

 15. Coin a new catchphrase.

Virgil walked back into the living room of his and Richie’s apartment, just out of the shower and wearing only a white tank and blue boxers.

 16. A Kaiba Carol

He appeared with no notice or pageantry.

 17. Who Spiked the Eggnog?

It was with a distinctly unfestive expression that Shinichi poured himself another glass of eggnog.

 18. Mine

“You know, for someone who is uninterested in sex, you’re skilled at it.”

 19. Get dressed up with no place to go.

When Shinichi walked into his bedroom there was just a flicker of a moment in which his brain demanded to know why there was a girl in his bed.

 20. Traverse

When his frontline defense runner brought word of a strange new arrival, Atem ordered his guards to maintain their posts but let the stranger approach.

  I’m actually really surprised. In my mind I have this strong tendency to begin everything with a line of dialogue, but only ONE of these does that!

I think the only real trend is that a lot of them set the stage/location/setting. (And that most of my fics are DCMK but… that is not a surprise by any means lol)

My favorites are probably 2 and 16.

Guess I’ll bounce this over to the only other writer I know on here that isn’t already involved lol

@solomonara

[splatterchatter]

Resident Evil Village  AKA Ethan, for the love of God grow a personality the same way you grew a hand, I’m begging you

Now, I am sure that anyone who has been on the internet the last couple of months is aware that there is a new Resident Evil game due to one Lady Dimitrescu in the promotional material for the game. Now, don’t get me wrong, a giant middle-aged vampire woman is worth the internet’s admiration, but it turns out that there is a lot more going on in this game, which I feel wasn’t advertised as much. So I am here with a review of all things that you missed while pledging your undying devotion and loyalty to Lady Dimitrescu, or one of her daughters. While I will attempt to make this a spoiler-free as possible, I can’t promise I won’t give things away so read on at your own risk if you haven’t played/watched the game yet.

Resident Evil Village, or Resident Evil 8, starts with a fairytale about a little girl who gets lost in the forest and receives gifts from a bat, a spider, and a sea monster before she takes a gear that is not a gift, leading to her to be confronted by an evil witch. Before we get to the end of the tale, we are transported to Mia and Ethan Winters' living room where Mia has been reading to their 6-month-old baby Rosemary. It is established pretty quickly that Mia and Ethan’s relationship is a bit strained since the events in Louisiana, which is understandable, and have been relocated to Europe by Chris Redfield in hopes that they can put the past behind them. As you can imagine, given that this is a Resident Evil game, the calm family scene doesn’t last long and once again Ethan is thrown into horrors beyond his imagination to try and save his child. Ethan, oh Ethan, you are by far the most boring video game character that I believe I have ever encountered. While his confusion and overall horror didn’t bother me too much in Resident Evil seven given how bat shit crazy that situation was for a man who was in IT before that all started, I could give him some leeway. However, after one bat shit situation, when your child is kidnapped and there are lycans running around a small European village, you eventually stop saying what and why all the time and start getting a bit of a personality other than screaming “WHERE IS MY BABY” over and over. Also, Ethan, you have fought enough people to know that you don’t have a whole conversation with them because that always ends poorly and yet on THREE SEPARATE OCCASIONS you have a whole dialogue before getting thrown into some sort of trap or almost killed. I mean you have a character who just reattaches his hand multiple times between 7 and 8 and he is still supremely boring and has no character development. Sliced white bread is more interesting than this protagonist, even with the twist. Now, did I get emotional at the end, yes, but that wasn’t because I gave a shit about Ethan so much as Chris Redfield's reaction to the whole thing. I mean, the character introduced in the after credit scene is more interesting in seven seconds than Ethan was in two entire games. While Ethan was terribly boring, there were several interesting characters, both protagonists and villains, that were underutilized in this game. To start with, a much more interesting game would have been to have the main character be Mia, post her life of lies and their consequences, having to track down her child and come to terms with what she did that led to the events in 7. While I also found Mia getting on my nerves in this game, it was mostly because she was sidelined to snipping at Ethan, not telling him the truth (because that went so well last time), and constantly shrieking questions. Mia was an operative and could have been fleshed out to be a super badass character if they had given her more purpose and screen time. However, you didn’t even need to flesh out Chris Redfield because he has been a staple in the Resident Evil games since the first one. There is already this rich backstory and he was more interesting in the half-hour we see him in the game and I felt for him more than Ethan who I’ve been with for two games. This is a man who's seen the carnage of Umbrella for years at this point and it’s wearing on him. Show me the story of Chris and his team, who were interesting in their own right, going god damn feral on an Umbrella facility. Basically, give me a main character with some sort of personality, I'm begging you. Hell, Beneviento’s little doll was more complex than Ethan.

  Speaking of Beneviento, while I felt that all the villains were pretty well-rounded, I didn’t think that we have enough time with any of them. Lady Dimitrescu is in the game for a surprisingly short time for all the hype she was given. Now, I don’t blame the developers for this as her castle is the first area of the game and therefore what they had completed first to show off to the world. However, I feel that each of the four houses could probably have been their own games, but instead, we were given just enough to get interested in them, and then they were dead. Lady Dimitrescu wanted to live with her daughters, Beneviento wanted to be left alone with her dolls, Moreau just wanted Mother Miranda's approval and Heisenberg wanted to kill Miranda for what she did to him. Heisenberg especially, I wanted to know more about and his history before Miranda. What did he lose when she brought him into her experiment? What did they all lose? There are enough questions there that I felt every section, besides perhaps Moreau’s, ended far too quickly to feel satisfying. At this point, you probably think that I hate the game, which is not the case. I actually found it really entertaining and a pretty good video game. However, I am a huge story person and while no Resident Evil game is a piece of storytelling genius, it doesn’t mean that I’m not going to talk about the things that bothered me. One thing that this game did exceptionally well is the visuals. This game is absolutely beautiful and all of the areas have their own distinct atmosphere and look. If you are a fan of Resident Evil Four, which most people are, the beginning of this game is going to give you the same ambiance with much better graphics. God, what I wouldn’t have given to have Leon kicking people down ladders in this game. While Lady Dimitrescu is far more interesting than Ramon Salazar, don’t get me wrong he is the one Resident Evil villain that I have never forgotten, they have the same thoughts on interior design. Then the Beneviento house and Monreau’s sections were more like 7 and the factory was a new and very beautiful set piece. An utterly stunning game. Resident Evil Village is also in the same vein as Resident Evil 4 in that it is much more action-horror than survival horror. While the Beneviento house is properly scary, the rest of the time you know that you’re going in shooting. I feel as if her house also has the scariest monsters, though there are only a couple. Don’t get me wrong, the lycans look cool and Heisenberg’s monsters are solidly in the realm of body horror, but you get a gun early and use it often. Resident Evil 7 was far more tense, even with weapons, because you have no idea where the family members were and usually they could easily kill you until you got into their boss fight. Again, it’s a fun game, but if you expected the same tension as in 7, you will only have it in a small area of the game. Overall, this is a fun and beautiful game, but not without fault. I am still craving the game with Mia as the main character because I feel as if that would be a much more interesting story. Nothing against Ethan, he was just written that way. I am really hoping that if there is a Resident Evil 9 it follows Chris just laying waste to an Umbrella headquarters because the man deserves it if anyone does. I mean, my dream is a Chris Leon team-up, but that is just the fangirl in me. Chris and Claire would be fun too. Basically, anyone with a personality. I would say that this game is worth the money, but not without fault. Now I am just crossing my fingers for a Resident Evil four remake because I need to see my boy Leon again as well as the president’s daughter popping out of a dumpster like a gopher with stunning graphics.

[kendrixtermina]

Thoughts regarding the Nolofinweans

One interesting thing to note, to me, has always been the slight contrast between Fingolfin and his kids. 

They’re like him in the sense that they’re described as brave, valiant badasses - Fingon & Argon being huge war heroes for example, but unlike him, they are also explicitly adventurous, which their father is not; he was explicitly in the “stay” faction but went along out of obligation (both to the people, but also because he gave his word, and because revenge) - meanwhile Fingon & Aredhel couldn’t wait to be gone, the former is noted to have marched at the very front during the departure. From how he’s described as very impetuous & heroic, we can assume that Argon was probably the same as his sister and oldest brother. 

The possible outlier here is Turgon, who is probably the most like his father out of the bunch. Pretty responsible & noble, tough not completely without some pride of their own. The way in which they go down is certainly very similar: “I have miscalculated & failed to protect those I was responsible for! Clearly all is lost and I must atone for my folly with my life, so let there be fireworks”

So, do the other three just happen to take after Anaire? They probably do in the sense of being very loyal friends like she was to Earwen (especially if you hc that Aredhel put her own adventure plans on hold to help her then-newly widowed brother with his kid) 

However, I wish to float another idea: 

Consider Fingolfin. What do we know about him? Though he’s the middle child, he seems to have been the most popular of the princes, at least in Tirion proper. That might well be because he was the one who was most often in Tirion, doing actual prince things, so the people of the city would have known him well - whereas Feanor was always traveling or working as an inventor; We’re told he had some influence with the scholars, but he probably wasn’t at the palace that often, and Finarfin noped out of everything & chilled out in Alqualonde - and why wouldn’t he, he was the youngest. It’s not specified what Findis did but it doesn’t seem to have been politics, it seems like the resonated more withthe Vanyar anyways, and Lalwen, like Finarfin, was one of the younger ones. 

It’s easy to imagine that Fingolfin was very dedicated & dutiful; Maybe there was an element of trying to win his father’s approval to it. There’s a very formal vibe to him, both from the title he ends up using, & some of the dialogue he gets, like, when he talks to Finwe in front of the assembly he adresses him as “my father and king” - certainly this is also meant to show that Fingolfin is considering the politics here, and of course they’re nobility. Maybe they just talk like that. But in the same scene, Feanor refers to Finwe simply as “my father”. Could it be then that this is a reflection of Finwe being somewhat closer with Feanor? Not impossible, but, in that snippet of dialogue where Finwe is discussing the events with Miriel in Mandos (and guessing very wrong about what’s probably going on in his absence) he refers to Fingolfin simply as “Arakano” (or whatever his mother-name was supposed to be at the time) 

So here’s my theory: 

In his younger days, Fingolfin used to be about as adventurous, impetuous and not-the-best-judge-of-character-y as Fingon, Aredhel and Argon, complete with some charley-brown esque conviction that maybe this time, Feanor would not pull the football away; It’s easy to see how he’d get cured of that last illusion with time, but there’s more to that.

He used to love nothing more than to go riding his horse around the landscape with Lalwen and do cool tricks; After Finwe would tell them stories of the great journey, he would go drape a courtain around himself and pretend to be a great chieftain. He’d do all sorts of daring tricks that won him the friendship of many other noble brats and some enduring Big Brother Worship from Lalwen. 

But then, as he grew older, it was inevitable that he’d hear people talking, that there’d be whispers behind their backs, or that he’d come across some documents where it’s referenced that his family was once the subject of legal dispute.

Much excellent writing has been made about what it must’ve been like for Feanor to have his very existence and the characters of his beloved parents be the subject of public debate, but the same would go for Indis’ kids, just in a different way - perhaps this is also part of the reason why Findis kept out of politics & the public eye. There were, after all, canonically people mumbling that they should never have been. At least Feanor would’ve been being a jerk to Indis on a regular basis. 

So at one point, after some humiliating experience or another, a still fairly young Fingolfin - maybe the equivalent of a 14/15 year old human or so - decided that he would have to be the most ideal, impeccable prince to prove everybody wrong, to prove that he was worth the dodgy exception, so to speak. If he were a clear benefit to Tirion’s society, he thought, with a bit of juvenile pride, maybe then people would stop talking bad about his parents, and his siblings would not be subjected to the same scrutiny. 

So from that point on he threw himself into his studies & his responsibilities (”Sorry Lalwen, duty calls. I’ll play with you tomorrow”) and did what he could to be a shining example, so no one would say that his parents were selfish for having him or whatever - and he was good at it, which ironially probably created something of a pridigial-son sort of situation. He was always there, suceeding & not giving anyone cause for worry (until things between him & Feanor started to get heated), so he wasn’t perceived to need attention; He probably felt a bit taken for granted now & then, like his efforts weren’t appreciated, or not good enough, though it was brobably just an occasional bit of subliminal resentment before Melkor came in. 

There’s one snipped that didn’t make it into the final cut, where Finarfin is described as the gentlest of the brothers, but also very learned and also a good speaker... which I’d sort of assumed anyways, because, look at Finrod. But imagine being in Fingolfin’s shoes with two super handsome, super smart brothers. He’s super exceptional himself, but when he was young & had only his family to compare to... 

Likewise, you might look at Finarfin’s super talented kids & conclude that he severely downplayed his own talents because he didn’t want to kick up more of a fuss & felt his father had enough “talented sons” to worry about.

We have to appreciate that the Melkor incident didn’t just result in a rift between Feanor & everyone else, but in strife & discord everywhere; Everyone’s marriages were wrecked, parents took different sides than their children (Finarfin: “We stay!” Angrod: “No we leave!” Orodreth:”No we stay!” ...But Orodreth did not turn back and had a thoroughly bad time in middle Earth more than anyone save Aredhel maybe.) - tough we’re told that at least his sons stayed civil enough to not outright criticse him in public. I think the partings between the children of Indis were probably messy too. Findis probably told the others to go to hell when they left, then Finarfin turned back, with some degree of bitterness over how all turned out - even the pair that was left in Aman might have taken some time to reconcile.  

(As for Turgon, he either simply won the impulse control lottery (ie -  he just takes after Indis), or got all responsible when he had Idril. )

[champagnesuperhoeva]

Seasonal depression is on its way back, so why not analyze another scene from Red Dead Depression 2???????

I’ve been meaning to do another screeching ramble about one of Red Dead Redemption 2′s many incredible scenes, but just couldn’t put my finger on which one. So I threw a rock and hit the Saint Denis bank robbery, that’s the story

strap in, motherfuckers, it’s time to regret the concept of empathy

It is such a missed opportunity that we weren’t able to chaperone the girls as they went about putting on their various bullshit personas to gather reconnaissance. I want to see Tilly reading a newspaper with glasses, a fake nose and a mustache

Something Red Dead Redemption 2 spoiled me on is just how much ROI they squeeze into every last line of dialogue. Not a single word feels generic or hamfisted. Every sentence, every twitch and blink, adds up to a greater whole. The more I watch, the more I unearth. There are several AAA titles that frequently get painted with the ‘Good Dialogue’ brush like Uncharted that don’t hold a candle to Rockstar’s work here. 

Take Hosea grilling Dutch here, for example:

Dutch acquiescing to Hosea’s justified criticism is depressing in its hindsight. Sir Spam der Linde is an arrogant blowhard that could give Dr. Gregory House a run for his money...and yet he still mumbles and bows his head when being told he needs to get his shit together. Compare this to earlier in the game, when he was snipping at both Hosea and Arthur for all their doubts and questions. Double that for the camp interactions you can find where Dutch and Hosea argue about the Blackwater Heist. 

Is reality finally sinking in a little for our manic pixie dream man? Does he just have a hard time bullying Hosea, who’s around 5,000 years old and doesn’t give a fuck? For every answer you get, you get another question...and I fucking love it. This character -- and the series at large -- toes the razor-thin line between transparent portrayals and thicc layers of intrigue. This kind of carefully sewn subtlety is sorely lacking in not just videogames, but mainstream media in general. Sometimes I still can’t believe I got to experience this game.

This little scene is just one of many ingredients to make you wonder that, if the bank job had turned out all right...if Dutch really would’ve started changing for the better. 

Arthur clutching his belt buckle like he clutches my neck in my dreams

So the plan is made and the cowboys are off to Sand Penis, and I bet nobody in the history of the world has made that joke before

Just the build-up to the bank sends goosebumps up my arms. 

Even with apprehension in the back of your mind, it’s hard not to get sucked into the whirlwind of adrenaline here. You have each member playing their part, from Abigail as the helpless damsel to Charles and Bill as crowd control. Great back-and-forth dialogue as characters anticipate what’s about to happen (with some delicious doubting from John). It’s like a group project, except you don’t want to slap your partners!!!*

*except micah ‘I Haven’t Scrubbed My Nailbeds In Fifty-Three Years’ bell

Fun fact: if Dutch hadn’t said ‘one last time’, the bank robbery would’ve been a success. Should’ve browsed TVTropes.

The direction of this game remains impeccable. 

This is a simple shot of a few dudes riding their horse...and it’s made just that much grander by the camera angles, slung low to the ground to create a stronger sense of scale. With the tense drums in the backing track and the sudden quiet that’s befallen our beloved anti-heroes, this provides the perfect finishing touches to one of the most memorable and stressful parts of the game:

The runway.

We start off this display of cowboy couture with Dutch Fam Der Linde, well-known in the West for wearing crushed velvet while hiking the open trail. Dashingly long coattails make up the bulk of this iconic look, with a sexy pop of red to round it all out. A complimentary red bandana lined with a hint of gold brings out the buttons, chain and belt buckle. Very regal. Much fucky. Still want to slap him for future crimes, so 9/10

A surprising comeback from the man who invented skid marks. Lavender pinstripes add a splash of character on an otherwise minimalist black ensemble. Complimentary silver bow on the hat and dark bandana makes me uncomfortably wet, so 9.5/10, would leer again

A classic suit with just a touch of more. A wide velvet collar with matching velvet cuffs create a refined softness, contrasting the gold buttons and dramatic coattails. Shoes shiny. Skin moisturized. Even his everyday ponytail looks fancier than ever. 15/10, if Javier kicked over my sandcastle I’d thank him

What are those????????? I think Bill got pranked by Uncle while out shopping for robbery gear. That, or he confused one of Susan’s tablecloths for a three-piece. The topmost layer of dust is so thick it could be peeled off and donated to charity. 3/10, could probably still pass for a picnic table

Shameless. Unacceptable. Walking around like a bootleg Egoraptor with a crinkly suit that looks like that oil-stained pizza napkin you keep forgetting to toss. Why did I take a screencap that makes it look like Dutch is jacking him off. Micah’s even jutting his beer gut out in an ominous foreshadowing for the Guarma chapter. ThereIsn’tANumberLowEnough/10

Arthur strolling in with that slow, confident walk that gets me pregnant in both legs, someone please fetch the plan B

Dutch calls a Hosea an artist and is most certainly one himself. He speaks with the affect of a poet, even as he’s holding a pistol in people’s faces and making them shit themselves in slow-motion. This man redefines stage presence. Why would he want anything less than the best, when this is the final hurrah of his iconic, infamous career:

THE RUNWAY: PART TWO

Bill out here just confusing everyone’s laundry for low-level loot. 5/10, may or may not be susan’s granny panties

charles: “is my iron giant cosplay valid robbery wear”

dutch: “no, charles, iron giant cosplays are not valid robbery wear”

dutch: “gorons from legend of zelda aren’t valid either”

JAVIER IF I GIVE YOU A 10/10 WILL YOU LEAVE

Here’s a little detail I didn’t notice (even after several viewings of this scene): Charles over in the corner looking like a dweeb.

Notice how awkwardly he holds that rifle: two-handed and with his knees bent, suddenly looking like he’s never handled a weapon before. This is such an odd contrast from the unapologetic badass we know. Remember, this is the same man who can wield a sawed-off shotgun one-handed like it’s nothing. One of the most adept physical fighters in a gang full of cutthroat motherfuckers. 

This detail on top of his dorky robbery gear? It’s actually a peek into just how out of his element he is. 

Charles has been with the gang for less than a year at this point. Even then, he’s usually helping with tracking, hunting and scouting. Whenever he goes off with Arthur on a mission, he’s always the first to suggest a peaceful route. This is not someone who’s used to robbing people for a living and it shows in the most adorable way. What you see here is a man putting on a persona of what he hopes looks like a bloodthirsty robber.

This whole scene is a fucking blast. Herding the upper-class elite into the far rom, figuring out the combination key under codenames, listening to the banter of the squad in the background. It doesn’t help I’m a slut for baroque-styled architecture and half my attention was on the pastel decor. Yeah, yeah, I know we have three thousand dollars on the line, but look at that gold filigree

These outlaws move like a finely oiled machine, not a detail out of place...which makes the ensuing mess all the more tragic.

...and this post is getting too long, so I’m going to post the second part separately. Ain’t I a stinker?

[tomorrowsdrama]

Hyena Ep. 8 - The Second Drink

The second time Geum Ja and Hee Jae share a drink might just be my favorite scene of the drama so far.  Yes, even more than that kiss at the end of this episode.

Both characters, especially Hee Jae, were so emotionally bare, it kind of took me by surprise to be honest.  Up until now, we’ve only seen glimpses.  We’ve never seen them actually acknowledge their feelings and fucked up history like this.  Omg I loved every bit of it.

So after Hee Jae leaves the group dinner, he goes home and can’t help but think about Geum Ja.

Sigh, he really latches onto everything she says.

One of the cardinal rules of drinking is that you never call your ex when you’re drunk.  In fact, it’s best if you keep your phone tucked away somewhere so you don’t end up doing something you’ll regret when you’re sober.  Clearly, nobody told Hee Jae.

Cut for a loooooot of screencaps.  I just liked so much of the dialogue in this scene!

I think I know what that reason is.  It’s a four lettered word and starts with an “L.”

OMG, excuse me,  what?  Did he just say that?  I guess it’s not called liquid courage for no reason.

Geum Ja tries to deflect and puts up her guard by joking around like usual.  However, Hee Jae doesn’t snip back and instead just gives an amused smile without contradicting what she said.  

Even though there are other customers in the pub, the scene is framed in a way that makes it seem like they’re in their own private world. I really dig this PD’s style.

More and more, Hee Jae realizes that their relationship was catered to only what he wanted and he really didn’t consider Geum Ja’s wants and likes.

Omg and then he starts asking her all the questions he never asked while they were dating. I was squee-ing so hard at this part.  They’re just mundane, every day questions you would ask on a first date.  However, given their history, it’s such a huge step.  It signifies that Hee Jae wants to forget their past and get to know the real Geum Ja.  Perhaps she’s not used to having a man sincerely want to get to know her.  Or maybe she just wasn’t expecting it from Hee Jae.  But you can see that it catches her completely off-guard and she doesn’t know what to do.

She repeats the same line she told him before, that she was never sincere with him.  Except, this time, there’s no bite or malice to it.  She’s not saying it to hurt him but to push him away.  And unlike the first time they had this conversation, Hee Jae’s face shows that he doesn’t believe her words. 

Also, the lighting, make up, and wardrobe choices for Geum Ja in this scene are considerably softer and lighter than when they had their first drunken conversation. 

And of course she pushes him away and doesn’t let him even think of getting close to her.  Again, she doesn’t say this in a malicious tone.  But she says it as if it’s for his own good.  It’s telling that she says to find a “nice lady” who’s right for him and to maintain his dignity.  She clearly thinks they’re mismatched and he would be downgrading from his world by being with someone like herself. 

That’s their problem.  They’re unable to have these honest conversations outside of these private settings.  It’s as if their true selves can only exist far away from everyone else.  

And Hee Jae hits the nail on the head.  He knows that she has feelings for him too (or at least is hopeful she does) but she’s holding back because she’s afraid.  But it’s hard for Hee Jae to understand why someone as strong as Geum Ja would be so afraid of pursuing a relationship with him because: (1) he doesn’t know about her past and the baggage that comes along with that; and (2) he’s not the one that has to enter a world where everyone has done nothing but look down on him.  As someone who was born into the elite class, he’s never had to think about not being good enough for someone.  If anything, he was always the one judging whether someone was worth his time.  Therefore, it probably doesn’t even cross his mind as to why Geum Ja may have her reservations.

Yes, get some more of that liquid courage.

I SCREAMED, and then I died, and then i screamed again.  Omg Hee Jae is not playing around!  The thing is though, Geum Ja is just as vulnerable in this scene as Hee Jae is.  I mean, have we ever seen Geum Ja make such an expression before?  Oh girl, you’re in it now.

I usually complain about how Netflix subtitles remove all nuances from the Korean language but I think they did a pretty good job establishing the distance Geum Ja tried to create here.  Geum Ja is clearly drawing a line by addressing Hee Jae formally, something we have not seen her do before.

Fuck, ok I lied.  THIS part killed me.  I SWOONED SO HARD.  He is just baring heart and laying it all out there.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a male character in a kdrama be so emotionally open and honest.  A male lead who says exactly how he feels to the heroine?  You’re shitting me.  And it’s as if his openness scares Geum Ja.  She truly did not expect him to be go all-in like that.  Girl, you shouldn’t have made him fall in love with you if you couldn’t handle it!

Despite her lying to him and the numerous times she pushed him away, Hee Jae truly DGAF.  He knows he shouldn’t want to be with her but he can’t help it.  Because fuck it, he loves her.  Y’all I need a moment here.  I think I swooned too hard and need to lie down.

He then leaves their private little world and the shot opens up to show the rest of the patrons in the pub.

Oh, Geum Ja.  What are you going to do now?  Just give in and let him love you!

[wainwrightjakobshammerlock]

finally. i decided to do this. anyways hello there, i am jake and today i want to talk about something; you see, if you are in the tf2 fandom, you probably know about heavymedic. Wherther you are a hardcore gamer who resents f2p’s or a person that never played the game but has trillions of notes on their art- you know heavymedic exists and most of all you probably ship it.

And I find that weird. In the few fandoms in my life I have been in I had never seen a single ship be so widely if not shipped, then accepted. Sure, maybe everyone in the GF fandom knows what Billdip is - for better or for worse. Sure, maybe the HS fandom is 70% shipping.

But I have never ever seen such a phenomenon in a prominent multiplayer game fandom. A fandom, sadly, oftentimes filled with toxicity. Overwatch is very similar here - yet ships are either a hot topic of discussion or straight up ignored. But TF2? In here for whatever reason we ship these two mercenaries. And in this essay I will try and find a reason or two why is that.

Apologies for any mistakes or incoherency. English is not my first language, I need to ramble, and my vocabulary is all over the place.

Content warning: mentions of homophobia, blood, death, mentions of WLW fetishization, nsfw mention. Also MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR THE TF2 COMICS.

Part 1: Canonical Evidence and Interactions

Let’s be honest: I could ramble about this one for days on end. But I’ll try and keep it short.

First and foremost we have the official videos. And of course the first thing that comes to mind is Meet the Medic.

At the very start of the part where Medic himself appears, we see him telling a joke about a particularly gruesome situation to Heavy.

He laughs along with him, visibly enjoying his company. He even smiles as he waits for another joke. Heavy only shows genuine fear a lot later.

And of course this damn scene always cracks me up. Medic slightly pinches Heavy’s cheek and strokes his lip gently (the other part is almost not noticeable unless you play the video at slow speed).

Of course we all know about the Hand Hold that happens somewhere halfway in the vid. I don’t think I have to explain the gayness in that. The fact their hands stay interlocked even after Medic helps Heavy up. The deep breath Medic takes because even he cannot handle the emotions. That few seconds is unresolved sexual tension manifest.

Overall the short shows a strong feeling of trust between these two. Medic confides in Heavy and reverse. Yeah he puts a baboon heart into his friend’s chest cavity but the fact (as proven at the end of the video) that Heavy was the first one to have an Ubercharge implanted into him shows that Medic at the very least considers him a lab rat.

I treat End of the Line as non-canonical, as do many others, and as such won’t discuss it here. But it will forever crack me up that Valve endorsed such levels of homoerotic subtext.

These two have some short moments in other videos, like for example in Invasion Heavy helps Medic up (CINEMATIC PARALLELS) but it’s nothing major so I guess I’ll skip forward.

Second is their interactions ingame. You might call me a weirdo for trying to find stuff in there but holy shit I have things to say and I’m going to say them.

You thought I was going to fanboy over the “i love this doktor” voiceline huh? Well not really. I wish these two had unique lines if they assist one another.

Heavy is literally listed on the official wiki as the “ideal medic buddy” and multiple pages on that exact wiki say some pretty interesting things.

I have to say something about the Gentleman’s Ushanka and/or Pocket Medic. They are both community cosmetics - but the fact they both got accepted by Valve says a lot. Above is text snipped from the actual wiki.

Last but not least: The Comics. Darned comics. The pair of mercenaries has basically no interaction - unless you count issue 6.

Heavy getting absolutely PISSED when Medic is killed by Ch*avy. Their reunion. Medic referring to Heavy by “my friend” in a totally straight way. Kind of sad Valve wasted an opportunity for them to hug. Maybe they knew their comic artist ships them and wanted to avoid having to answer the Question™.

Part 2: Dynamics

This part’s a bit trickier, mostly due to the reason that I’m new to this whole dynamic analysis thing. Yeah I’m good at spotting canonical evidence but very specific shipping dynamics often escape my gaze.

The most obvious one is Big Guy, Little Guy. Quoting the TVTROPES page:

[…] This trope describes a pair of guys who always fight together, are best friends forever, and quite often have a very obvious hierarchy: The little guy is often in charge […] The little guy is usually listed first, since he’s the leader, and they are always listed together, as if they are one entity. In fact, some episodes may center on the fact that they can’t live without each other. […] If this is a case of Brains and Brawn, the Big Guy is usually the Brawn, and the Little Guy the Brains. It’s almost never the other way around, but in some cases the Big Guy can be rather smart too. […]

A sub-type of this, a common favorite here on Tumblr is known as “small chaotic big calm” and hoo boy if that isn’t these two. I don’t really have much to say here - again I am not an expert.

Part 3: Fandom Impact

So you don’t think Red Oktoberfest (as Heavymedic is sometimes called) is super popular on anywhere else than Tumblr? Wrong.

It’s hard to find TF2 fics on Archive of Our Own not tagged with Heavy/Medic. Of course most of them only contain hints to their relationship but go in the main tf2 tag and I can guarantee you, you’ll gonna see “implied heavy/medic” all the time.

But these two go further than AO3 or Tumblr or Instagram or whatever. They are recognized even within the wider circle of the fanbase. Take this SFM, for example. (I am using the Saxxy Awards version of Secret Lives here mostly due to the fact that the Heavymedic moment is much gayer. In the normal version, the dialogue isn’t changed, but they simply hold hands.)

But it gets deeper. (WARNING: THE GAY MOMENT IN THIS ONE IS NSFW. NOT EXPLICITLY SO BUT JUST A HEADS UP TUMBLR PLEASE DO NOT FLAG ME)

And the best part? The comments are extremely positive. You’d expect hoards upon hoards of homophobes screeching but no, the comments are supportive. Even on places such as Reddit or Youtube, comments like “yeah they’re gay and in love” do not get downvoted/disliked to hell; in fact the opposite.

Part 4: Canon Status

Let’s be real. Most ships are shipped because people want to explore the dynamics in fanfic, fanart or something else. But Heavymedic is shipped because… well, I have no idea.

Actually, I kind of do - but only theories. You see, while the canonical evidence is here, the creators have never said anything about them. No confirmation, no disproval, no hinting, nothing.

But the ship is so prominent! There has to be something causing this!- you say. And to that I present you 2 theories on why Heavy/Medic is so popular.

Theory number 1 states that we simply all choose to interpret their interactions as homoerotic. And this is very easy to disprove - there’s simply no way we just collectively agreed on these matters out of nothing. There has to be something bigger.

And theory 2 states that, well, our interpretation is the desired interpretation. But this is even more ridiculous than theory 1 for a number of reasons. If they are in fact gay, why hasn’t Valve made them canon yet?

A Theoretical Scenario

I am going to ramble big time on this one, so buckle up lads. I’ll discuss a theoretical scenario in which, well, if that was not obvious, Valve confirms Heavymedic as canon. Maybe then we will see why they will probably never do so.

TF2 is considered by typical capital G, alt-right Gamers as a “non-political” game. This means no women (in the game itself, at least, and if even, sexy women only), no queer folk and no minorities (for some reason they accept Demoman but throw a fit if someone draws any other merc as not being pearl white). Team Fortress 2 was around before Gamergate and other things like Gamers Rise Up. It’s a classic and Valve is regarded as the good guy to Epic Game’s bad guy. If Valve did anything to confirm doubts, wherther it be clearing up popular fanon or confirming ships, these people would throw hands. (Although they seemed to ignore when one of the writers confirmed Miss Pauling is a lesbian. Huh.) Even those that don’t play TF2 would come to the aid of their bros.

Let me illustrate with two very similar examples. In both cases these confirmations were the first made by the company as a whole, both are fairly recent and both confirm a character as gay.

First we have the confirmation of Tracer from Overwatch as a lesbian. It was done in one of OVW’s comics. Tracer is the FACE of Overwatch as a whole and while most of the fanbase accepted it (thankfully the Gamers are reluctant to infest ow), some people threw what I can only describe as a hissy fit. At least her girlfriend’s a background character.

Second is Neeko from League of Legends. Unlike Tracer she was added a while before it was confirmed she was gay. LOL is much more toxic and filled with Gamers than OW and holy shit people smeared LOL so much.

Of course these are not accurate to Heavy/Medic. In both of the cases I listed it was girls being wlw and we all know how much cisgender heterosexual gamers LOVE yuri porn. Apparently only girls can be gay because they can jack off to it - if it’s two guys then it’s disgusting. Nevertheless I think these are good approximations - in every case the company gets “shat on” on social media and other sites. With the community that Valve has, I think even if they wanted them to be gay, they would never ever confirm it.

Conclusion

I’m sorry for that ending. I had to theorize a bit. Regardless I’d love if you shared this on other sites, reblogged or whatever - I wasted at least 1 and a half hours of my life on it. Feel free to cite this as a source if someone asks you why you ship the big heavy weapons expert and the feral battle medic.

[mmmmalo]

Some Words on Openbound

This is a step towards a more comprehensive account of A6I3 (Openbound). The basic idea: Meenah’s interactive adventures can be read as a dream-sequence from Roxy’s point of view expressing the following motifs:

The threat posed by (Lord) English functions as a metastasized metaphor for problems posed by language itself.

To escape from the clutches of language is to achieve perfect communication, represented by a return to a pre-lingual, child-like state (“pre-lingual” at once referring to image, sensation, and silence)

The recurring motif of 'merging with child’ is also used to a. to express the desire for pregnancy b. to express the desire to become one’s True Self, conceptualized as an inner, child-self that is “born” within oneself like an embryo c. to express pedophilia

First: Meenah is Roxy’s doppelganger. When we are introduced to Roxy’s fenestrated planes, we are promptly informed that if someone were caught half in/out one of the windows when the power cuts off, the poor soul would be sliced in two (4510). By Chekhov’s gun, this introduction ought to result in someone getting gorily bisected by the window, but it never happens. Instead we get this:

Gcat warps the panel away, trapping Roxy in the void, and we are shown a bisected horse puppet (left). The half-horse reiterates the looming threat of Chekhov’s guillotine. Roxy’s body is intact, but the scenery suggests she ought to be split. The suggestion is followed by the initial appearance of Meenah (right), implying that Meenah herself is a piece of Roxy, snipped away and running rampant. Thus, a doppelganger.

So, taking Meenah to be a esoteric mirror of Roxy, it follows that her adventures in the dreams bubbles are a narrative frame for /Roxy’s/ dreams. This is the basic assumption of everything that follows.

1: Language is the enemy.

Time is an impermeable barrier. It ticks on irreversibly, edging its victims unto entropic dissolution. The Lord of Time and the destruction he brings embody the inevitability of death. Aradia cracks a joke about this at the beginning of Openbound: within the ageless confine of the dreambubbles, “time is a figure of speech”, she says. Though ostensibly asserting the endless flexibility of time, an alternate interpretation would indicate that Lord English, time, and language itself are apprehended on similar terms. The most useful one presently: language, like time, is regarded as a barrier.

Throughout Homestuck, characters struggle with abstractions, beginning with the frustrating data mechanics of the sylladex and culminating in various tightrope-walks along unorthodox configurations of space and time. Language numbers among the headaches: Caliborn characterizes the text he reads as “walls”, further declaring them to be “impenetrable” and “migraine-inducing”. On one level, this aligns with Caliborn’s statement that the kids talk/think too much and he’d like them to just GET THE FuCK ON WITH IT ALREADY: speech is an obstacle towards both the completion of the kids’ objectives and Caliborn’s attainment of what he wants. On another level, this aligns with the later discussion of Caliborn’s learning disability: in all likelihood, he has difficulty reading. Another example of this disdain for language is Jade, who, in her rapturous treatise on the wonders of anthro, answers the call of the wild by renouncing words.

No need to answer. Words slough from the busy mind like a useless dead membrane as a more visceral sapience takes over. Something simpler is in charge now, a force untouched by the concerns and burdens of the upright, that farcical yoke the bipedal tow. It now drives you through the midnight brush, your paws whisking through creepers, unearthing with each bold stomp bright odors demanding investigation.

Just prior to Openbound, the sentiments expressed above (that language is unnecessary, an obstacle to unmediated communication and pure sensation) are restated in mythic terms: REALITY ITSELF is being DESTROYED by (LORD) ENGLISH! Language the inhibitor of direct experience becomes language the rot of the universe, language the malevolent destroyer of the capacity for any experience at all.

Meenah witnesses English’s destruction of reality and rushes off to recruit soldiers to fight him. There is harmony between the imminent threat of English and the gameplay: the primary obstacles to Meenah’s objectives are words. Literal walls of text stand between you and the end of the level, as you must navigate exhausting conversations to satisfy the game’s win conditions. Within the conversation themselves, the motif persists by showcasing various ways that speech can obscure meaning.

Kankri couches his points in overly ornate terminology and uses social justice as a tool for settling personal disputes. Latula laments how her commitment to her RAD speech affectations and persona can make her harder to understand. Cronus trips over his own accent, Mituna tumbles through various word spasms. Meulin’s deafness is thematically succeeded by Rufioh’s inability to communicate his unhappiness to the Horuss, who has sweat in his ears. The two characters who you cannot understand at all, the silent Kurloz and the pseudo-Japanese speaking Damara, are revealed to be direct servants of Lord English! Failure to communicate – inability to bridge the barrier of language – is the enemy.

The counter to the hyperbolic threat of language-as-mediation and is a fantasy of perfect communication. In Jade’s scenario, attainment of this ideal is presented visually as Jade acquiring the superficial markers of a wolf (“Wouldn't these ears suit you? Would not this proud long snout assist you in the hunt?”), whereupon she acquires the rich experience that she associates with the idea of animal, unmediated by language. Just as Jade merges with the image of a wolf, there is an image in Openbound that Meenah seeks, the attainment of which embodies the goal of some idealized communication, without words.

The image is that of childhood.

2: Kankri and Porrim form a spectrum of identity

In Homestuck, desire is generally structured as the restoration of a lost unity. Consider Cherub reproduction, itself inspired by a Platonic model of love: in seeking a soulmate, one is actually seeking a fascimile of their lost half, that with which they were originally united. The force that fractures this unity -- the boundary that prohibits access to the desired object -- is the law.

I elaborate on the various corollaries of this motif elsewhere (x)(x), but for present purposes, let it suffice to say that time itself functions as a law of sorts, insofar as time rips you away from childhood and bars the possibility of a return.

That’s a little abstract, so here’s an example: due to the the status of trolls as manifestations, we know that the characters Meenah visits in the afterlife are expressions of her (and thus Roxy’s) psyche. This relationship is difficult to map on a troll-by-troll basis. But things begin to click when you view each cluster of interactions with Beforan trolls as a mental constellation, their interplay showcasing pervasive internal dialogues and dynamics.

In the first cluster, Latula appears between Porrim and Kankri because SHE IS THE LAW, dividing Jesus from Mary, Child from Mother (which, as I will show, seems to be the trajectory Roxy imagines for herself). This is the reason that Latula successfully interrupts Kankri and Karkat’s “conversation”: they are clones, more or less, and the law is that which divides the child from itself.

I don’t claim Kankri represents a child just because he’s a brat who gets ruthlessly mothered by Porrim: it’s also implicit in his politics. Humans are not stratified by blood color, so the hemospectrum is not directly analogous to any real life example of power, privilege, or what have you. Neither is it perfectly generic. In a given context, the hemospectrum is often analogized to some particular notion of hierarchy. Eridan’s drive for blood purity marks him as a analogous to a racial supremacist; the depiction of Zebruh’s attitude towards low bloods is well interpreted as being rooted in a particularly exploitative brand of misogyny (x); and Kankri’s polemics pivot upon the particular role that AGE DIFFERENCE plays in structural oppression of Alternia, a metaphor for what is popularly termed “adultism”, injustices stemming from the power adults hold over children.

Kankri emphasizes that the lifespan discrepancy between warm and cool hemochroma means the upper classes are allotted far more time (unto eons) to consolidate power and define cultural norms; their immense lifespans constitute a structural basis for the oppression of lowbloods, whose relative youth means less time to organize. This doubles as a description of a political limitation of children, relative to adults. Kankri describes the lowest grouping of blood colors as Burgundy, Ochre, Umber, and Yellow -- BUOY for short, which not coincidentally is Meenah’s nautical permutation of BOY. All of which is to say that Kankri rankling at Porrim’s doting is mutually analogous with his politics, in the context of Beforus, where coddling is the de facto relation between castes. His being a brat raging against an overbearing mother is an analogy.

And funny enough, that’s something he and Porrim have in common, in a way. Porrim balks at the /role/ of motherhood expected of her, among other injustices upon women in Beforan society. And Porrim likewise objects to the role of RAD GIRL that Latula 'pro+jects’, encouraging her to just ‘be yo+urself’... the idea being, in the same sense that Latula’s GAME GIRL persona masks her ‘real’ personality, femininity itself is construed as a shell encasing the ‘true’ child-self within. Or rather, the feminine persona is portrayed as being pregnant with the child-self, which is the true self. So Kankri’s raging against Porrim is a metaphor for a spirit balking at the gendered expectations that encase them.

If I can speak with any confidence on this psychological reading of Kankri and Porrim’s opposition, it because the invocation of pregnancy to communicate as sense of inner/outer self is repeated throughout the dream, through the language used to describe characters who are otherkin. Take Cronus for example: he is named after a god famous for devouring his children. And his lusus (an expression of his desire) is a seahorse, notable for their child-bearing males. The net effect is the impression of a baby in Cronus’s belly -- but instead of literal pregnancy, we see Cronus describe himself as ‘a human “born” in the body of a troll’, essentially invoking the image of pregnancy to communicate his status as humankin.

Here you might begin to see how this is Roxy’s dream -- the mental conflict between Porrim (womanhood) and Kankri (childhood, which while ostensibly gender neutral can be rendered masculine by opposition to womanhood) creates a spectrum of identity available to Roxy, as made explicit by their gender exploration in the epilogues. This seems to be the joke at play whenever Latula reiterates the “GIRLS RULE, BOYS DROOL” line from her theme song: taken literally, it is a succinct summary of the Kankri/Porrim conflict, wherein the feminine persona is construed as dominating the (at times masculine by contrast) child-self. 

Kankri’s description of a “warm-identifying physically-cooler caste” is Roxy: she identifies with her child-self.

And as I mentioned before, just as Latula stands between Porrim and Kankri, time is the law separating someone feeling trapped by femininity from a childhood where such concerns were nonexistent. Time is thus the enemy, which is one of the thematic reasons the Lord of Time warrants such resentment. A certain longing for childhood also characterizes the glimpses of John that punctuates Openbound: he laments the inability to recapture the feeling of watching Con Air with his Dad when he was younger (throwing his big tantrum at the exact moment that Cyrus threatens the bunny, which really ought to go back in the box, the perfectly generic object). Roxy later voices a similar sentiment in Wizardy Herbert via Beatrix, who would “trade all the badges in the world to go back to when things were simpler.” Elsewhere in the story Roxy emphasizes a growing tension between a figure with ~100 merit badges (symbolizing complexity) with another character, Russet (an apple, the emblem of atomic simplicity, as per drunk!Rose). Kanaya might describe this as a tension between Space and Time (1093), but here it chiefly serves to further underline the Child and Adult distinction.

3: The corollary of “perfect communication” is silence.

If Time divides the child from itself, it can be hypothesized that Lord English can embody this divide in his other symbolic functions, such as his embodiment of language. If true, it follows that the union of the child-self represents perfect, unmediated communication. Our first example of such a union then are the enmeshed Vantases (who are basically clones) -- but instead of some transcendent transmission of thought, we see an endless one-sided lecture. Spoonful after heaping spoonful of heaving diarhetoric fed directly into Karkat’s gaping earhole.

And on a psychological level, perhaps that’s an apt description of what it means to “just be yourself” without interruption, no commentary or insecure protests interjecting their way into your stream of consciousness. Ordering yourself around without a second thought. And I’ve been in the zone in that way, where I’m so immersed in a task that the task becomes me. But on an interpersonal level, it’s clear that “perfect” speech is entirely unequal.

Despite ostensibly championing the rights of children in the face of domination, Kankri asserts himself as the “teacher” to Karkat’s “pupil”, assuming that the transmission of truth will be one-sided. When confronted by Porrim about this hypocrisy, Kankri defensively insists that he is having a “man to man conversation” with Karkat, an equal exchange. (And oddly, even as she advocates for Karkat, Porrim leaves Karkat in his silence, gently assuring him that his dejected glance has said all he needs to say...)

At any rate, the Karkat-Kankri dynamic illustrates that the immediacy of communication within the primordial union brings with it an element of domination. The subsequent pairings (Cronus-Mituna and Kurloz-Meulin) elaborate on problems and abuses that can accompany compromised speech and silence, each section emphasizing a particular child symbol: respectively, angels and cats (which I’ve established previously). 

Angels first: Cronus’s claim that “as a wwingman [Mituna] is a total disgrace” uses “wingman” to invoke the image of angels. This method is repeated by Lil Hal, who observes that Dirk views him as a “counterproductive wing man”, to which Dirk sarcastically replies “nice deduction Lil Einstein”. The reference to the Disney Jr. show neatly ties the angel reference into the fact that as Dirk’s creation, in a sense Hal can be considered Dirk’s child. And in the same way that Hal (the child/angel) functions partly as a reflection of Dirk’s own nature, Mituna’s angel status indicates that he can function symbolically as Cronus’s “inner-child”, the self with which one is pregnant.xx

Silence is an interminable pregnancy. Not speaking means not birthing the baby, not letting the angel fall to earth. The hush is a measure against the corruption and ruin associated with English. (Even though the silent characters are his most devoted servants?)

Cronus demonstrates this with the command “vwait here, try not to fall dowvn, and ABOVWE ALL, try not to be seen” in which “above all” doubles as the place from which Mituna is falling. Language is the instrument of descent, Mituna’s garbled speech emphasizes his “fallen” status within the paradigm. Cronus “really hates the sound of” Mituna partly because he views Mituna as a caricature of himself, again not unlike Dirk’s violent rejection of the negative qualities he identifies in Hal.

This is why Cronus’s opening gesture is to fail a tongue-twister and cry GLOBES in exasperation: it is as though he has hit a snag in his verbal kick-flip and face-planted onto the earth (the globe) -- Mituna bombing his literal stunts and falling down being the root visual. Skateboards (and other 4-wheel devices) are vehicles unto “unreal air”: a status of immaculate lofty ideality, and thus untouchable and pure. The other skateboarder, Latula, made a point of emphasizing her untouchability as she performed some “objectively rad” tricks for Kankri. And more to the point, Latula claims that her intuitions “just make sense” and explaining them would not be "radical”, saying in her own way that bringing her feelings/intuitive knowledge into the realm of speech would in some way tarnish or degrade them. “4 grlz gott4 s4cr1f1c3 und3rst4nd4b1l1ty for th3 s4k3 of r4dn3ss” she says.

Another way to put it is that not expressing a thought can make seem invincible -- it cannot be exposed to the risk of contradiction or mockery. A relevant quote:

MEENAH: i heard a rumor you think youre a human now MEENAH: that true

CRONUS: its a privwate matter. i dont see vwhy i should havwe to talk about it vwith you, and open myself up to more of your judgmental scorn.

MEENAH: sounds like another desperate cry for attention imo

(Aside: an old friend of mine faced almost this exact conversation on facebook when they came out as a trans man, so this one actually hit home a little bit.)

Roxy’s sensitivity to the reactions of others is perhaps implicit in the paranoid staring contests with the void, but in relation to their gender expression, it becomes most explicit in the epilogue -- not only in the faltering manner by which Roxy begins to assert their gender expression, but in the narration itself. Although Dirk’s narration seems to largely reflection his own hesitation to embrace Roxy’s newfound identity, it should be remembered that he is effectively Roxy’s brainghost when narrating their thoughts. That is to say, Dirk’s reaction to Roxy is symbiotic with what Roxy imagines Dirk’s reaction would be. The mockery in the narration is the mockery Roxy expects and fears. Thus, Roxy’s level of comfort and security with their current gender expression necessarily coincides with the level of ease expressed by Dirk’s later narration.

But let’s return to Openbound.

The traumatic deafening of Meulin is analogous to the deathening of Jaspers: one is blasted with the violent shriek of a clown, the other sassacrushed by the “daunting text” of Mark Twain. With the cat as a symbol of the child-self, the message is basically that the child’s encounter with language is a violent experience. (Lord English is destroying reality, etc etc) Kankri neatly echoes this point of view by announcing one of his lectures as “my crushing harangue 9n this delicate su6ject” -- to rephrase, he is crushing the delicate subject (child) with his harangue.

Like much violence in Homestuck, violence of speech is sexualized. There is a moment where Cronus openly relishes the unilateral communication first displayed in the Kankri > Karkat pipeline. He basks in the fact that Mituna is incapable of repeating anything coherently, or that Mituna’s word is otherwise held in such disrepute that no one will take Mituna seriously. As Cronus does this, Mituna laments that Cronus is touching him and will not stop.

The bad-touch motif continues with Kurloz and Meulin, who achieve their own mode of “perfect communication” (union with child-self) via streams of wordless, emotive images. In the above exchange, Kurloz mimes an Ewok rubbing a child, to which Meulin responds with a small frown and a laughing Sailor Moon, as if to convey that she were the one being tickled in the previous gif. She slams the UNSEE button to emphasize her displeasure. (It is only after this sequence that we learn Kurloz can control Meulin’s mind, further linking harmonious union with tyrannical, unilateral communication)

It’s worth noting here that Meenah’s goal in parts 1 & 2 is to get through gates established by Karkat, ultimately convincing him to join up with her. Karkat who, alongside Kankri, currently represents the child-self. Just as Rufioh interprets Meenah’s invitation to join as a romantic proposal, Meenah interprets her successful recruitment of Karkat as a date, sealing the euphemism by reassuring her recruit that he “will not regret hitchin [his] wagon to [her] starfish”, which is a sex joke. The undertones of age disparity later surface as Meenah joins up with her second Vriska (x):

MEENAH: can i ask a kinda personal question MEENAH: i mean not even that personal but whatev 

VRISKA: Sure...? 

MEENAH: how old are you 

VRISKA: Uh, VRISKA: Almost seven and a half sweeps. VRISKA: Getting close to eight!!!!!!!! VRISKA: I pro8a8ly sound like a fucking nerd, 8ut I've 8een excited a8out reaching that milestone pretty much my whole life. 

MEENAH: 7.5 huh MEENAH: i guess thats a lil more respectable 

VRISKA: More respecta8le than what? 

MEENAH: nofin

For Roxy, the libidinal investment in kids is confined to subtext for basically the whole story: jokes about the speculative mechanics of boning chess people and elves, the sexual tension between Russet and the boy with 100 merit badges, the time Roxy was briefly upset to learn she had been “flirt-larping” with a 13 year old Dirk, only to resume the game a page later -- little moments. In the epilogues, Roxy being highly conscious of her interactions with children and the potential for reproducing systems of domination seems embedded in her trepidation towards any of the players governing the world they created (a hands-off attitude toward parenting that may also offer some rationale for Mom’s neglect of Rose, if all that is true of Roxy holds true for her past self).

But let’s move forward.

4: To See Oneself as a Host Plush

I’d like to reiterate here that the Kankri-Porrim dichotomy suggests that the categories of ‘baby’ and ‘boy’ are blurred in their mutual opposition to ‘girl’. Again, the letter of the law: BOYS DROOL! This offers a rationale for oddities like Roxy wiping John’s mouth for him during their date in Candy (boys drool), or this little slip-of-the-tongue which I wouldn’t quite call subtle:

ROXY: doin ok up there b?

JOHN: i’m fine!!! JOHN: wait. b?

ROXY: yea like short for babe ROXY: cuz ur my babe b

JOHN: oh, haha. right.

If we’re being less charitable, you could characterize this as Roxy keeping her eyes on the prize -- as though in addressing John, she is actually addressing the baby that he can provide her. And while I’m not certain of that, the notion of such double-speak (seemingly addressing the person in front of you when you are actually addressing an unborn child) is crucial for understanding the metaphors embedded in the Damara-Rufioh-Horuss triad.

The motif of pregnancy is here introduced via Fiduspawn: impregnate the host plush and a baby pony comes out.

You might remember that Rufioh refers to girls as ‘doll’ -- this quirk links the host plush to the feminine (at least within the context of this dream). To be more precise, the doll is characterized as a void that invites (or even demands) filling: this is a complementary reading of Horuss’s claim that Rufioh “stole his breath away”, synonymous with the claim that Rufioh “has a way of drawing the breath out of people”. The Rogue of Breath has difficulty standing up for himself (Horuss calls it “affable pliability”), so Horuss often speaks over him or on his behalf, as though Rufioh were a marionette. Horuss is saying that Rufioh’s passive demeanor invites this sort of behavior, that Rufioh’s effective silence means he is “asking for it”, to use a loaded phrase. 

How funny then that the “doll” of their group Damara (whose name means Silence) is literally “asking for it”, constantly. The same logic applies to Dirk’s decapitated head (from just before this intermission!) and Vriska’s comatose body -- through narrative contrivance, each voiceless vessel hauntingly implores a living Page to kiss them, to fill them with a Breath from without. The sequences suggest a conviction on the part of the kissers: that which is “empty” must desire to be “filled”, a framing that becomes particularly unpleasant when sexualized.

What Damara is asking for is ambiguous, at once referring to sex and the child to which sex serves as vehicle (among other potentials). I wrote awhile back (x) that Mom gave Jaspers an ostentatious burial as a proxy mourning for a miscarried child that preceded Rose, and her cat-cloning was oriented towards the eventual revival of her lost baby. For Damara (and thus Roxy) this becomes a fundamental myth: the desire for children is complemented in intensity by the conviction that the child has already been lost, or stolen from you. Horuss observes that Damara’s remarks a leaning “bloo” because (it’s a pun) her dirty talk is tinged with mourning. There is, inexplicably, sorrow when Damara says she wants to feel her nipples between your teeth. She’s not talking to you -- she’s talking to the baby.

This is also the joke when Latula/Terezi threaten to kill Damara for approaching Mituna/Karkat: the LAW will not permit you to access BABY! You may not recover your child or your childhood, time has barred you from both. (Though of course, through the pedophilia lens this becomes much less sympathetic).

A similar moment can be read into Horuss: Kankri, like all trolls, acts as a manifestation of some emotional surge, so Kankri’s sudden appearance implies that someone is legitimately triggered, despite the comic’s apparent commitment to denigrating his point of view. Like Cronus, Horuss’s horse-kin status entails an identification with his inner (child) self -- but the trans allegory melds seamlessly into other modes of union with the child image, such as pregnancy. So when Kankri asks Horuss to confirm that he is triggered by Meenah’s skepticism towards his identity, the reply “Trigger sounds like a wonderful name for a hoofbeast” is not merely a flippant non-sequitur, but also another echo of the core lamentation, a wistful musing on names for a dead/unborn child.

A brief step backwards: at the beginning, we outlined how Lord English’s destruction of reality was (in the present context at least) a mythic expression of fears and frustrations about communication and speech. Dissatisfaction /produced/ a fantasy individual to whom the problem could be sourced and blamed assigned. A similar attitude should be adopted in examining Damara’s theft of Rufioh’s “happy thought” Tinkerbull -- she represents an already existing discontentment with his circumstances, crystallized into an individual.

This is where Damara would seem to slot into the dysphoria proceedings: she crushed Tinkerbull with a refrigerator, a reprisal of the sassacrushing of Jaspers. The refrigerator is a womb symbol (I insist), suggesting that the womb is a hostile force on par with the Law of English (Girls Rule!). From the perspective of Mom, this could be read a response to her miscarriage, a result of blaming her own body for the child’s death. From Roxy’s perspective, it might be better characterized as ‘the body itself is a domineering force suffocating my child self’ -- and thus dysphoria. Damara crushing Tinkerbull represents the sense that your own body is a meat prison, a shell imprisoning (if not outright killing) your happiness.

This is why Damara manifests for Kanaya, who struggles to reconcile herself with Porrim, a daunting image of ideal womanhood, especially as it concerns the care of matriorb (ie motherhood). Porrim assures her that even though motherhood is to some degree a societal imposition, a role, this does not mean Kanaya cannot embrace the perpetuation of her species on her own terms. This is a good lesson, and Kanaya agrees -- but there stands Damara regardless, joy-stealer, lingering discomfort with self-conception as a host plush. “Just ignore her until she goes away” is all the advice Porrim has to offer on the subject.

(Passing thought: It occurs to me that the phrase ‘happy thought’ used to describe Tinkerbull could be replaced with ‘euphoria’, forming a clean complement to ‘dysphoria’... but wordplay reliant on a missing link is somewhat suspect, so let’s leave that one in the margins)

5: High Euphemistic Density

Let’s review by playing with some euphemisms in Horuss’s opening address to Meenah. I’m dividing his words into 3 sections for ease of reference:

1 HORUSS: 8=D < Your Harness... I mean Hayness. Highness I mean. HORUSS: 8=D < F*DDLEST*%. Please pardon my utterly e%ecrable language, and unforgivable stammering, your Horseness. #Sh*ot! #I mean Hayness! #Whew. 2 HORUSS: 8=D < I am a bale of nerves in your royal presence, and it has been so long. 3 HORUSS: 8=D < And when I am so spooked, you must know how that causes me to even more firmly identify with the majestic hoofbeast.

Starting with three: recall, “girls rule”. Femininity is characterized as a daunting (or even domineering) imposition. Kanaya displaying anxiety at the prospect of measuring up to the image of Porrim is one way this motif crystallizes into a character dynamic. Another way seems to be Horuss’s anxiety before his empress -- just as Kankri (child) rebels against Porrim (mother), the presence of Meenah (mother) induces Horuss to identify with the hoofbeast (baby). Both cases present a shrinking away from a feminine authority figure as metaphor for rejection of the societal strictures of femininity.

Two is a dick joke: while Horuss is ostensibly lamenting his anxiety, a penis is a literal ‘bale of nerves’, a sensory cluster. “It has been so long.” The pun is reinforced as the expense of Rufioh, who apparently did not have ‘the nerve’ to ‘finish [Damara] off’ on her quest bed, which is an innuendo for sexual inadequacy. That Horuss’s smiling face emoji is itself a dick suggests a conflation of identification with his happy thoughts and identification with the member -- which, based on previous discussion of Tinkerbull, would seem to blur the line between having a dick and being pregnant? Which aligns with the notion that pregnancy becomes a metaphor for masculine identification via union with the child self.

(“You very nearly caught a glimpse of a horse penis and began to cry” conveys a mournful yearning of the same order as “I want to feel my nipples between your teeth”?)

But the metaphor goes both ways: the brain is another ‘bale of nerves’, thus offering a rational for Mituna’s presence on the outskirts of the dream. His fall from the brain tree strikes me as less an ejaculation (from brain-dick) as birth (from brain-womb) -- hence the use of Mituna as the lost child, forever denied to Damara by the law (Latula).

And we arrive at one, which repeats a bit from Cronus’s introduction: Horuss trips over his own speech, illustrating the Fall. Just as Cronus attempts to silence Mituna to avoid the embarrassment expected to accompany self-expression, Horuss attempts to c*nsor himself before the judgement of his empress. The need to hide himself (as the stoic smile might indicate) is also embedded in the way Horuss describes his mouth as a load-gaper, and begs pardon for his potty-mouth: silence is golden, and conversely speech becomes excrable, fallen and profaned.

(Silly thought: on occasion, censorship can also designate the holy, eg censoring the name of G*d so as not to besmirch it. That in mind, I find it amusing to take Roxy’s line “holiest of shits // the shit.... // is down right // SACROSANCT” as a literal deification of excrement, making Horuss and Rufioh’s self-censorship look like a last ditch attempt at keeping the angel-child up in heaven. No?)

6: Conclusions and Questions

Obviously, this isn’t all that can be said of Openbound -- people have written extensive character studies of the alpha trolls, mined their stories for clues and parallels to less tangential plot-lines, and otherwise made whatever sense could be made of things. My contribution is some words on the mixed metaphors, word play, and psychological motifs that surround the proceedings.

If you, like me, are frazzled by the sheer density of double and triple speak at play, this is the gist of what I’m arguing for:

“Merge with child” seems to be the overarching motivation expressed in Openbound. But to follow that command verbatim is impossible -- the goal must be interpreted (as getting pregnant, as being true to oneself, as pederasty, as nostalgic pursuit of simplicity, etc) in order to be realized.

That the ideal merger is an image whose wholeness/breadth of possibility is lost in the specificity of actualization would seem analogous to the Fall occurring between silence and speech... so the motif persists on a meta level, maybe? But we don’t need to dwell on that more than we already have. 

Instead, I’d like to end with several new points that give me pause.

It’s still not clear to me why the silent characters are the direct servants of Lord English. Communication with them is impossible, and that frustration is what causes language to be conceived as a threat in the first place, but I have an itch that tells me there’s a bit more to it than that.

I don’t know what the transmission of the codpiece has to do with anything. I suspect it may number among various metaphors for trans masculinity, but that’s confirmation bias speaking -- from the scene itself, I gathered very little.

I wonder if Aranea’s info dumps at the end are factored in... you could construe them as placing Meenah in the position of Karkat relative to Kankri -- on the receiving end of spoonful after heaping spoonful of words. So even though Karkat disappears after you follow him, you’ve nonetheless “merged” with the child-function that he performs here? But again, I worry that this sort of hasty integration means I’m missing out on new info.

I’m pretty firmly of the mind that this whole intermission is chiefly devoted to Roxy, but I do worry that Meenah’s doppelganger status could have misled me on that point. After all, Jane’s planet quest contained references to her friends desires, not only her own (x)(x) -- would it be so odd for the same to be true of Roxy’s dreams? In which case it would be worth revisiting this intermission to double-check whether any given section might map more closely to the other alpha kids -- especially since Rufioh/Horuss is a transparent commentary on Dirk/Jake

This is a good a place as any to note that when I was operating under the assumption that Roxy was a trans girl, I was inclined to read the Rufioh/Horuss break-up as ambivalence on the question of getting rid of your dick -- which seemed sensible enough at the time, though the present model seems more consistent across the various conversations. It should be noted though that the language of gender questioning can easily serve multiple directions at once. So... I guess I want to make sure the apparent success of this approach doesn’t blind me to other interpretive potentials? Fingers crossed

...there’s more things to question, probably, but I think that’s good for now.

Special thanks to @red-zora for giving this mess the once-over.

Good night everyone.

[jbuffyangel]

Y'all are going to look really dumb when it's revealed that Maya is black siren's kid. Black Siren & Blackstar. Both have green eyes and blonde hair. & in the audition piece her character asked Dinah about Black Siren. Honestly this the marriage thing all over again. I'm going to laugh my ass off. You get what you deserve!

What marriage thing? When I said Olicity was going to getmarried and then they got married? Was that the thing? 

Because that’s whathappened.

I know it can be confusing since there were four proposals,one fake wedding and two real ceremonies. I definitely got what I deserved.No arguments there!

Maybe I’m thinking too specifically about this “marriedthing” because I agree there were some really funny moments on the way to thealtar:

Oliver proposing to Felicity in front of L*urel and sheapplauded.

Oliver leaving L*urel on their wedding day because herealized their fake relationship in the dream world was based off his realmemories from his relationship with Felicity – down to the damn wedding dress L*urelwas wearing. 

And then Oliver decided he’d rather live in a world where he had asnowball’s chance in hell of getting back together with Felicity rather thanstay in a dream world with L*urel living their white picket fence existence.

L*urel telling Oliver ON HER DEATH BED he was the love ofher life and he responded with silence. 

Of course, Oliver didn’t really have tosay anything. L*urel already wished for him to get back together with Felicity 

and acknowledged she knew she wasn’t the love of Oliver’s life.

Oliver telling Felicity, HIS WIFE, that no matter who shebecomes she will always be the love of his life.

That shit was hysterical.

You could be simply referring to general commitment too. Rememberthe time Oliver cheated on L*urel with her sister? 

Or when he cheated on L*urelAGAIN with Samantha (who was also her friend), got her pregnant and never told L*urel until Samanthashowed up in the damn bunker? 

Comedy at its best.

Or when Oliver ran for the hills every time L*urel mentionedany kind of cohabitation and/or long term future together? 

I laughed my ass offboth times he did it. 

The North China Sea and an island from hell were preferablethan a lifetime with L*urel L*nce. HILARIOUS.

Maybe the “wedding thing” isn’t the show at all. You couldbe referring to comments from the cast and crew in relation to Oliver’sromantic endgame like:

Stephen saying it didn’t matter if L*urel had lived. Oliverwould never be with her and it was always going to be Felicity on their show.

The showrunner confirming Bl*ck S*ren and Oliver would neverbe together romantically.

The showrunner saying Oliver would NEVER cheat on Felicity.

The showrunner discussing Emily and Stephen’s chemistry andhow it was lightning in a bottle, while acknowledging Stephen and KC’schemistry is a hot mess. (Friendly reminder you can’t fix chemistry issuesbetween actors no matter how many different versions of the character theyplay.)

ALL KNEE SLAPPERS!!!!! Completely agree Anon.

If you’re going to laugh your ass off about something itshould at least be what happened in the show. There’s plenty of stuff I gotwrong.

I’ll help you out. Let’s see… I said Tommy was Prometheus. That was a goodone. 

I also said there was absolutely no way Arrow would marry Oliver to theonly lesbian on the show. Boy did I miss the mark that time. 

Or how about whenI said that L*urel L*nce was going to die. 

Oh wait. Nope. That happened. 

Then I said the writers would never bring our L*urel back to lifeagain. 

Shit. That happened too. Well, I gotta get a few of them right once andawhile.

But why talk about the past? This is about the future as you say Anon and of course you’re right. Mia is clearlyBl*ck S*ren’s daughter. BECAUSE GREEN EYES AND BLONDE HAIR. 

Of course Hollywood’snumber one concern when casting a role is matching hair and eye color rather than finding the right actor for the role. Just ask Dakota Fanning.She played everyone’s kid. I’m sure she couldn’t even get in the door beforedocumenting her eye and hair color.

She probably needed a DNA sample too because we know the actors areactually producing real children to play their fictional children and thenmagically aging them 20 years. Someone should tell Kat McNamara that Katie isreally her mom. What a hell of an episode that’ll make. SO META.

It’s so sad we have yet to invent hair dye or coloredcontacts if this kind of detail is really important to a director. DAMN YOUSCIENCE.

I mean of course Felicity can’t be the mother because she’sa bottle blonde. Whereas Bl*ck S*ren, who you love to remind us is anexact replica of E1 L*urel L*nce, is clearly a natural blonde. Just like ourL*urel was. 

Oh. Nevermind.

It’s a real mystery where that blonde hair comes from withMia because everybody knows children are sprouted from the heads of motherslike Zeus and Athena. Women are asexual after all. The mother’s DNA is the onlything that matters in the creation of the baby.

You know what’s weird? I have brownhair and brown eyes. So how did my daughter get the most beautiful blonde hairand blue eyes the world has ever seen? OH MY GOD!!! IS SHE NOT MY BABY? AM ILIVING SWITCHED AT BIRTH? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! *picks up phone to call police*

Hang on. 

I’m trying to remember my sex education. I assureyou it’s been awhile. I feel like at some point someone told me the father alsoplays a fairly significant role in the creation of a human being. Somethingabout sperm. 

My husband has blonde hair and blue eyes. So maybe it’s possiblethe man I’ve been sleeping with for 13 years impregnated me with thischild (if we’re to believe the junk science of sex education) and passed on hisblonde hair and blue eyes to her. THE MIND REELS. *putting down the phone*

So if Mia wasn’t sprouted from the head of her mother andArrow has embraced the insanity of actual science, I guess it’s possible that Miagot her blonde hair from OLIVER. 

Wow. 

But what about those eyes? It’s IMPOSSIBLE for two blue eyedpeople like Oliver and Felicity to produce a green eyed baby. Although, Iseem to remember my 10th grade science teacher saying somethingabout two blue eyes making green in our genetics unit. I also did a 5 secondGoogle search and some guys from the Stanford Genetic labs also confirm it’spossible, but there’s no way they know more than you Anon. I definitely think your dunk-a-person-in-water-and-if-they-don’t-drown-it-means-they-aren’t-a-witch kind of science makes a hell of a lot more sense than Stanford geneticists. If there’sone thing history taught us it’s to follow the science of 1600s Salem,Massachusetts.

But maybe I misunderstood again. Your word gymnastics is sotricky and smart. It’s hard to keep up! 

Maybe you just meant Bl*ck S*ren getspregnant by Mr. Rando. I’m sure we’ll see her love story develop any day now,since she has to get pregnant really soon for Mia’s age to make a damn bit ofsense. Certainly Bl*ck S*ren’s relationship with Mr. Rando will take precedenceover Oliver and Felicity’s love story. It’s not like the show is centered onOlicity, so I’ll be on the lookout for this impending great romance.

Genetics aside, you also alerted me to the iron clad proofof the audition scene!!! What would I do without you anon? I haven’t seen Mia’saudition scene, but if she mentions Bl*ck S*ren then of course it means she’sher daughter. DUH. Everything from the audition scenes ends up in the show. Question – was her name Maya in the audition? 

I did see the audition tapes for nearly every actress whoauditioned for “Tina” aka Dinah Drake. Those leaked everywhere. I bet theshowrunners were pretty ticked. I’m still waiting for the writers to introduceCarlos or dive into Dinah’s service with the Marine Corps. It’s almost like theyput things in the audition scene that don’t end up on the show to throw peopleoff. Ya know, in case the scene leaks.

I remember when people thought there was a chemistry testbetween Stephen (Oliver) and the actress playing Tina (Dinah) in her audition.Everyone freaked out. Olicity was over! Oliver Queen was going to end up withthe new Bl*ck C*nary, which of course is exactly what happened in the show.

Damn it! I’m wrong again!

I really need to rewatch seasons.

Funny enough the snip it of dialogue from the audition scene for Tina did end up in an episode of Arrow. But the scene was betweenDinah and Diggle. 

So weird. It’s almost like they screen tested chemistry withanother actor. But God knows that wouldn’t happen because obviously Oliver isending up with some kind of C*nary.

I know what I’m about to say is insanity, but maybe Bl*ckS*ren was mentioned in the audition scene as a diversion. It could actually beproof Mia’s character has nothing to do with Bl*ck S*ren at all. I’ll be sureto ask the writers once Carlos shows up. It’ll be any day now.

And last, but certainly not least, Bl*ck Siren and Blackstar both have the name BLACK. Does this also mean she’s Dinah and Zoe’s baby? Because they have black in their code names too . Oooh maybe Dinah and Bl*ck Siren get married!!! I do love a good wedding theory. If William ever gets a code name he better make sure it has GREEN in it so people know who the hell he is. That’s the point of a code name right? Damn. Bl*ck S*ren is CIA level. She’s so sneaky. I’m sooo impressed.

Thanks for reaching out and showing me the light Anon. Truly, I am grateful. I can’t wait to see how this response ages on Monday. 

[korolevskiy-sekret]

Sword of the Stranger manga review, separated into likes and dislikes:

Likes:

The art is cute, especially for Tobimaru and Kotarou. There are some 100-emoji shots of Nanashi, Suichen, and Muyou, too.

The author did a really good job of combining scenes, for the most part at least. 

The Ming are so much more expressive and I love it.

Luolang especially has more expressions and lines - as a result, the bridge incident is less “Who’s this random foreigner snapping at me in Chinese?” and more “Who’s this random foreigner monologuing at me?” which is very funny to me.

The bridge scene was very well done, which is good because it was my favourite fight.

I REALLY like that they added that spat of rain after, so we see Nanashi’s hair colour way ahead of the movie. I also like that we see multiple moments of people reacting to him with red hair, rather than just being told that people reacted badly. 

Actually, Nanashi spends much more screentime with red hair, and I really appreciate that, because it always bugged me that he spent all but a few minutes of the movie with black hair.

I like Muyou sitting on the crate with the clock in it instead of... anywhere she should be sitting. I would do that too.

I love the page of Tobimaru playing with Nanashi in the hot springs. That’s some excellent interactions right there.

I like the scene where they’re talking about Nanashi’s sword, especially the “Will you protect me?” “Yeah.” “Can you protect me?” “.......” exchange. Hit me right in the heart. 

Kotarou excitedly and childishly declaring all of the people he’ll protect when he learns to use a sword, including Nanashi.

I like that you can tell Yueshen’s birthmark is a birthmark. I always assumed it was a burn woops.

The scene with the kid Nanashi killed was a very good addition.

I like the final shot of Luolang and his sword.

Dislikes

-cracks knuckles-

Virtually every female character got her part reduced or cut entirely. Like, a lot of stuff got cut, but the female characters are noticeable. Hagi, Itadori’s wife and child, and the little girl from Oowatari were removed entirely; Mumao’s part was reduced so significantly, I think she may have been in like five panels? This is actually pretty maddenning - the movie doesn’t have a huge amount of screentime for its women, but there are so many more (and so much more varied) women in Stranger compared to its genre brethren, that their absence is notable. Also, I just really like the female characters in this movie.

Related, the scene with Mumao and Fengwu is removed entirely (and thus, any even vaguely direct mention of Fengwu’s crush on Luolang, though it’s still implied). The scene with Muyou and Luolang is still there, fortunately.

The entire ending of this manga is... kinda bad. The author was in a really awful predicament: the ending of the movie is designed to be a movie. There’s so little dialogue and character moments and so much movement and music that it makes excellent cinema, but bad manga. It probably needed to be changed - but the ending, and especially the final fight between Nanashi and Luolang, is the centrepiece of the whole movie, so you... can’t really take it out? Which means a compromise - the end has to be changed and shortened, and no one is happy. So instead of Nanashi rushing into a fight between the eight Ming and a Japanese army, Nanashi is rushing into... a fortress guarded by like eight people, and there’s no army because Itadori et all were killed in their own house.

Because everything was so shortened and characters disappeared, all of the parallels get snipped.  :C  I like the parallels.

Was there any point to Zekkai being kidnapped? Did... did the author forget that happened? I think Shoan was just kind of left there, too. 

A pendulum and ticking clock to kill Kotarou is.... kinda dumb. 

Nanashi has some pretty amazing plot armour to survive two arrows and a gunshot wound (though admitted, I think it only grazed him). Also, calling this right now: in the Muyou v Nanashi fight they presented, You would have won, hands down.

Mumao’s death was so incredibly stupid that I don’t know what to say beyond what the fuck, author.

They changed Fengwu’s weapons from swords to daggers, which is is both aggravating and baffling.

Fengwu goes from being killed by a combination of Nanashi and falling to... being killed by Luolang for standing between him and Nanashi. I am beyond mad at this, not in the least because it felt much more... Bury Your Gays, than the movie. :/

Neither Luolang nor Nanashi’s sword broke.

The ending makes it clearer that Nanashi surived, but less believable.

In conclusion:

It should have been two volumes, like Wolf’s Rain and Ghost Slayers,

I am super glad I found it and have it on my shelf now.

That’s it that’s the review thank you for reading and have a good rest of the day